According to the Canadian Nuclear Association advertisements you see on TV, nuclear power generation is extremely suitable for replacement of the dirty coal-fired plants that are responsible for a lot of our air pollution. The dramatic increase in asthma -especially in children – and the rise in deaths in the elderly and vulnerable during smog-filled days have made it easy to accept their message that nuclear will provide clean air and is affordable and reliable. The International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH) believes that the Canadian Nuclear Association, an organization connected to the nuclear industry, is wrong on all three counts. It is a most expensive way to boil water, the source of energy used to turn the turbines to make electricity in nuclear power plants. It is unreliable as has been shown by numerous breakdowns and expensive refurbishments. The nuclear waste produced will be with us for centuries, while there is no good solution to the disposal of nuclear waste.
Environment friendly renewable sources and conservation will make both coal-fired and nuclear plants obsolete. For the sake of our health and that of future generations of all creatures, we must start now to eliminate these compound threats.
The solution to one form of pollution is not the use of another. Nor is it to leave future generations guardians to millions to billions of tonnes of nuclear radiation some of which will be radioactive for thousands to a million years.
Nuclear is NOT Clean
White steam emanating from the stacks of CANDU nuclear reactors contains tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen and emitter of beta particle radiation. Tritium is also expelled into the lake or river in the return flow of the water used to cool the reactors. One needs to look no farther than the report, “Respecting the Health Effects of Ontario Hydro’s Demand/Supply Plan (Health Effects Report)” prepared by the Public Health Coalition, Ontario Public Health Association and the International Institute of Concern for Public Health to discover that there are very real dangers to the emission of radioisotopes from nuclear power plants. More and more evidence continues to accumulate as more scientific discoveries are made concerning the effects of inhaled and ingested radioactive particles. Tritium combines with oxygen to form radioactive water (HTO) that acts just like water. It goes where water goes, into air, ground water and surface water. Since our bodies are mainly water, the tritiated water can cross the placenta and bind with the DNA of the cells forming the foetus or embryo, resulting in miscarriage, congenital malformations, genetic changes and disease in offspring. When radioactive hydrogen decays, it forms helium, which interferes with cellular functions. Although the energy release is low when compared with some other radionuclides, this low energy damages cells and allows them to live with their damage, reproducing errors in enzymes and hormones produced in the cell. More energetic radioactivity often is so powerful that it kills the cells leaving no damaged cell progeny to cause chronic, long-term diseases.
Natural water contains no more than 10 Bequerels of tritium in a litre of water.
But the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) allows 7,000 Bequerels /litre ten times more than is allowed in the U.S. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies zero radionuclides to be the health-based goal of the regulation of drinking water, and that the goal should be as close to zero for all beta emitters. The International Joint Commission on Great Lakes Water Quality declared that there should be no discharge of tritium into the Great Lakes.
Some of the tritium from Bruce Nuclear Power enters Lake Ontario through the Niagara River. The current in Lake Ontario goes in a counterclockwise direction around the lake picking up more tritium as it passes by the Darlington and Pickering Nuclear Power Plants.
Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg of Women’s Healthy Environments Network (WHEN), Sara Miller from Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), and Marion Odell from IICPH approached the Toronto Board of Health about the danger to health presented by tritium in drinking water. Convinced of the dangers to health from tritium, the Toronto Board of Health and Toronto City Council have asked the Province to reduce the level of tritium allowed in the city’s drinking water. The Council then passed a resolution endorsing the 1994 ACES scientific advisory body to the Government of Ontario recommendation that the standard be reduced to 100Bq/L immediately and then go to 20Bq/L after five years. As there is no known way to remove tritium from water once it is there, this means that the tritium must be prevented from entering the water in the first place.
Situated in Ontario beside the Ottawa River lies a charming small city called Pembroke, a beautiful, peaceful place away from the hustle and bustle of downstream Ottawa, but it contains a dark side, tritium pollution.
Pembroke’s environment – its air, groundwater, and soil – has have been contaminated with levels of tritium far in excess of the Canadian drinking water guidelines which, in our estimation, are already too high. The tritium came from the effluent stacks of SRB Technologies, Inc. (SRB), a manufacturer that makes glow-in-the dark signs using tritium. A ready source of tritium is from the CANDU reactors in the Canadian nuclear power plants. It is an increasing trend to produce commercial products from radioactive nuclear waste products. (Alarmingly enough is the fact that 90% of tritium produced worldwide is used to make nuclear weapons). The company has been unable or unwilling to control their emissions. Every time it rained, waste gases would find their way into groundwater. This has been going on for many years and citizens have become increasingly alarmed. They have been very concerned about the health effects as tritium, a beta emitter, when inhaled or ingested, may cause miscarriages, cancer, genetic damage malformations, and chronic diseases.
Through the efforts of a local NGO, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County (CCRC), and a campaign led by Lynn Jones and Ole Hendrickson and ably assisted by Rosalie Bertell, Stephen Salaff and Gordon Edwards, the CNSC suspended the SRB license to operate.
SRB proposed that they collect the radioactive material from their stacks and along with radioactive groundwater, to dispose of the waste through the city sewers into the Ottawa River. The CNSC staff have recommended this plan. It appears likely that this dreadful idea may well be accepted by the CNSC thus spreading the tritium down the Ottawa River, going by the Parliament Buildings and on to the St. Lawrence.
The CNSC subsequently has called for hearings to decide whether the firm should be allowed to recommence operations. At the time of writing, one hearing has been held and another is scheduled for the 27th of November, 2006.
Dr. Bertell is one of the interveners and will be giving testimony at the hearing, which will be posted on the 27th of November on our website at www.iicph.org+. IICPH is carrying out an educational campaign along with other individuals and NGOs.