The future of SRB Technologies (SRBT) hangs in the balance again, as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) prepares to hear an application by the Pembroke company for a licence amendment.
SRBT announced late Thursday afternoon it was applying for a change to its current possession licence to permit limited manufacturing at its Pembroke location without the processing of tritium.
The same day, the safety commission posted a notice of a public hearing regarding the application. The one-day public hearing is slated for April 12 in Ottawa.
The commission turned down SRBT’s application for an operating licence renewal last January, stating the company had not demonstrated that it had or would make adequate provision for the protection of the environment during normal operation.
The company’s current licence allows it to possess tritium, but not process it. It may also ship product.
Yesterday, Stephane Levesque, company president, explained that what the company is asking the commission to consider a change to the licence permitting SRBT to receive tritium filled light sources from other facilities that it could sell to SRBT customers. In addition, Mr. Levesque wants SRBT to be allowed to use the tritium light sources of other companies in assembling SRBT’s devices that it could then sell to customers.
According to Mr. Levesque, under the proposed amendment, SRBT would not be processing tritium and therefore the change represents a minor alteration to the existing possession licence.
Should the application be accepted, the company could survive for a time, as it would have a revenue stream. Without the change, the company would likely shut down.
SRBT’s current 18-month possession licence requires the company to make a number of improvements. There are deadlines it must meet before seeking another operating licence, but Mr. Levesque said the company needs a revenue stream in order to fund those improvements. ”(The licence amendment) is imperative for the survival of our company,” Mr. Levesque said.
SRBT employs about 36 people in Pembroke and another 15 in the United States.
Mr. Levesque said half of its Pembroke work force has already been laid off as a result of the current licence.
The remaining 18 staff continue to work in a limited capacity.
“The staff is able to ship and assemble the lights that we have left in stock into product which is also being shipped to our customers,” Mr. Levesque said.
Should the licence amendment be accepted, some of the laid off workers would likely return to work.
According to Mr. Levesque, using tritium light sources from other companies as a solution to the plant’s tritium emissions is not along-term option.
For the company to be viable, he said it must at some point resume tritium processing.
SRBT, located on Boundary Road, has been operating in the city since 1991. It manufactures glow in the dark signs and other illuminated products using the radioactive substance tritium.
The Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County, a local nuclear watchdog group, is upset that SRBT is requesting a change to its licence.
“We are stunned by this announcement. SRBT should not be negotiating terms for a new licence when it has not met the conditions of the old one,” said Kelly O’Grady, a spokesperson with the group and a children’s environmental health advocate. “Let’s not forget that this company was issued a possession license only and not a processing license for very serious reasons.”
Ms. O’Grady reiterated some of the issues that have worried the Concerned Citizens for years about SRBT including the underestimation of the amount of tritium the company was releasing into the environment from its stacks and the contamination of groundwater around the facility.
Ms. O’Grady doesn’t think SRBT should be permitted to bring in tritium filled sources to use in its products.
“This will open the door for major imports of tritium into Canada and this company has already demonstrated that they are incapable of safely handling this toxic radioactive material,” she said.
The Concerned Citizens will be preparing a written submission against altering SRBT’s licence for the hearing, however Ms. O’Grady was frustrated with the short notice given to anyone wishing intervener status at the hearing.
Members of the public cannot make an oral presentation at the public hearing in Ottawa but they may comment on the application by providing the commission with a written submission. That submission must be filed with the commission by March 28.
Members of the public can also attend the hearing.
Pembroke Mayor Ed Jacyno said the SRBT issue would be on the agenda at the March 13 meeting of city council’s economic development committee meeting.
Personally, he added, the potential loss of more jobs in the area is concerning to him, particularly in light of the loss of 280 jobs lost at the veneer plant which closed Friday.
Mayor Jacyno sent a letter to Premier McGuinty at the end of February expressing his concern over the loss of manufacturing jobs, not just in Pembroke, but all of eastern Ontario.
adixon@thedailyobserver.ca