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A Pembroke, Ont., company with controversial radioactive water handling procedures will have its operating licence extended for two months.
SRB Technologies uses radioactive tritium — an isotope of hydrogen — to make glow-in-the-dark exit and emergency signs at a plant about 130 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
The company has asked the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a three-year renewal of its operating licence, which expires Thursday.
On Thursday morning, the commission granted the company a temporary extension until the end of January while it takes more time to consider the request.
Commission staff have recommended an 18-month extension of the licence, but the licence renewal must be approved by the commission’s board.
A number of local environmental activists attended the company’s licence renewal hearings to ask that the plant be shut down permanently. They expressed concern about the way the company handles its radioactive runoff.
A Pembroke, Ont., company with controversial radioactive water handling procedures will have its operating licence extended for two months.
SRB Technologies uses radioactive tritium — an isotope of hydrogen — to make glow-in-the-dark exit and emergency signs at a plant about 130 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
The radioactive contamination in the groundwater around the plant was blamed on rainwater washing tritium off the smokestacks.
(CBC) The company has asked the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a three-year renewal of its operating licence, which expires Thursday.
On Thursday morning, the commission granted the company a temporary extension until the end of January while it takes more time to consider the request.
Commission staff have recommended an 18-month extension of the licence, but the licence renewal must be approved by the commission’s board.
A number of local environmental activists attended the company’s licence renewal hearings to ask that the plant be shut down permanently. They expressed concern about the way the company handles its radioactive runoff.
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In August, the plant was shut down temporarily after nuclear safety inspectors found the groundwater near the plant was contaminated with levels of radiation up to 80 times higher than what is considered safe.
Inspectors and company officials believed the source of the contamination was rainwater washing radioactive material off the company’s smokestacks.
As part of its licence renewal proposal, the company has proposed storing that runoff and releasing it periodically into Pembroke’s sewer system.
Company officials say that way the tritium will be diluted to safe levels by the sewer water before reaching the Ottawa River.
CBC News