nuclear-news

Precedent set in weakening the rules for transporting radioactive waste on waterways

.. the precedent set when it comes to transporting radioactive waste…..On Feb. 4 of this year, the CNSC approved BP’s plans to ship the generators over­seas, giving the power company a special dispensation over existing regulations covering the amount of radioactive materials allowed on inland Canadian waterways. It’s a big dispensation too: Edwards says the amount of radioactivity in the shipment is 60 times the permissible amount of radioactive waste allowed in one vessel for inland waters, and six times the amount for an ocean-going one. Furthermore, an environmental assessment of the changed plans was never held…….

Swimming with plutonium, Montreal Mirror, by PATRICK LEJTENYI, 11 march 11, Ontario’s Bruce Power nuclear plant is shipping hundreds of tonnes of radioactive waste up the St. Lawrence. Critics worry this is only the first batch “……16 enormous, 100-tonne steam generators, to be disassembled, melted down into scrap metal and eventually sold on the international market. The remaining 10 per cent of the original cargo will be sealed into special containers and shipped back to Canada…

…Residents who live near the MV Palessa’s route are wondering how safe the shipment is, and what will hap­pen if some kind of accident should occur. Their worries stem from the cargo’s point of origin: the Bruce Power (BP) nuclear plant on Lake Huron. The steam generators are radioactive, and each contains around four grams of radioactive contaminants, including five different isotopes of plutonium that together make up around 90–95 per cent of the total…..
the acceptable level of plutonium allowed inside the body of an atomic worker is 0.7 micrograms—that’s sev­en millionths of a gram. Doing the math, he says the cargo’s 64 grams of plutonium is enough to reach that amount in 52 million atomic workers.

Which is not to say it will happen—even Edwards and the staunchest opponents of the Bruce Power move say the likelihood of a major, catastrophic accident is remote. But it’s the apparent ease with which BP’s plan was approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) that worries them—and the precedent set when it comes to transporting radioactive waste…..

On Feb. 4 of this year, the CNSC approved BP’s plans to ship the generators over­seas, giving the power company a special dispensation over existing regulations covering the amount of radioactive materials allowed on inland Canadian waterways. It’s a big dispensation too: Edwards says the amount of radioactivity in the shipment is 60 times the permissible amount of radioactive waste allowed in one vessel for inland waters, and six times the amount for an ocean-going one. Furthermore, an environmental assessment of the changed plans was never held…….

March 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, wastes