The <I>Globe and Mail’s</I> Anna Mehler Paperny contributed a lengthy feature on the effects of the Fukushima nuclear crisis on the nuclear industry in Canada. We encourage you to read the piece in its entirety, because it covers a range of issues. Of special interest to Waterkeeper is the discussion about regulation.
In Canada, it’s now the purview of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Created in 2000 to replace the post-Second World War Atomic Energy Control Board, the commission’s seven-person panel and 600 employees are in charge of licensing nuclear plants and enforcing safety and performance regulations.
The commission has an officer stationed full-time at every nuclear plant in the country, and is meant to be an independent agency under the Natural Resources Minister. The commission couldn’t immediately answer when asked whether Canada’s rules need better enforcement.
South of the border, a report this month from the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that’s the case: A report by scientist David Lochbaum found the U.S.’s nuclear regulator had failed to act on multiple safety threats on U.S. plants. The rules existed, Mr. Lochbaum found, but those in charge weren’t enforcing them.
Former CNSC president Linda Keen, who was fired in January, 2008 amid furor over a shutdown at Chalk River’s isotope-producing reactor, said this week there’s “no doubt” Canada’s existing nuclear laws are sufficient.
“I think [regulators] were just sanguine. I think they were complacent. And I think they thought that everything was in place,” she said. “Hopefully they’ll learn from it and do a better job next time.”
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The destruction at Fukushima has renewed the volatile battle between nuclear energy’s champions and foes.
Anti-nuclear activists seized on those images to argue nuclear power had never been as safe as it was touted to be: Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, one of the opponents to Darlington’s new build, insists Japan’s crisis indicates a complacence they think is mirrored in Canada.
On a small note, we would like to clarify that Waterkeeper is not an “anti-nuclear” organization as described in the article; as stated before, Waterkeeper is focused on creating a swimmable, drinkable, fishable watershed and we have a series of site-specific concerns about the existing and proposed nuclear power plants on Lake Ontario.
