Waterkeeper reviews nuclear safety report, environmental protection performance
Port Hope Conversion Facility, October 2016.
Last year, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper intervened in the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s (CNSC) hearing to consider Cameco’s application to renew its Fuel Facility Operating Licence for its Port Hope Conversion Facility.
At that hearing, Waterkeeper raised a number of concerns with the facility’s environmental monitoring programs. Additionally, Waterkeeper drew the CNSC’s attention to the lack of publicly available information from Cameco about its environmental performance.
As a result, the Commissioners invited Waterkeeper to follow up on various aspects of its intervention during the current review process for CNSC staff’s 2016 Regulatory Oversight Report for Uranium and Nuclear Substance Processing Facilities. The Oversight Report goes over the operating performance of nuclear substances processing facilities—like the Port Hope conversion Facility—with a focus on health and safety.
Funding was awarded by the CNSC to Waterkeeper for two main review tasks:
1) An overall review of the 2016 Oversight Report, including the public information sharing component of the report; and
2) A more detailed look at the PHCF’s environmental protection performance including stormwater runoff management, environmental monitoring and reporting, and its compliance with the Fisheries Act and other relevant legislation.
Read our submission here, which contains eleven recommendations.
Waterkeeper retained Wilf Ruland, hydrogeologist, to provide expert review to supplement the report above. Check out his findings below.