For 53 Years Successive Liberal And Conservative Federal Governments Have Allowed Radioactive Leakage From Chalk River Reactor Into The Ottawa River
John Diefenbaker - Lester Pearson - Pierre Trudeau - Joe Clarke - John Turner - Brian Mulroney - Kim Campbell - Jean Chretien - Paul Martin - Stephen Harper: All of these Conservative and Liberal Prime Ministers have turned a blind eye to a 53 year continuous leak of radiation into the Ottawa River. How many people have died from cancer as a result of this criminal negligence over the last 53 years?
"OTTAWA — The aging NRU research reactor at Chalk River has been leaking low-level radioactive water into the Ottawa River for about 50 years, a federal licensing tribunal has heard.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), owner-operator of the 53-year-old reactor, has been unable to halt tritium-laced water seeping from the reactor’s control rod bays and is instead diluting the concentration of tritium with fresh water before it somehow leaks into the nearby Ottawa River, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) tribunal was told.
The five-member CNSC panel is deliberating on an AECL application to renew the operating licence of the NRU and surrounding Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) to 2016. AECL officials have assured the panel that NRU can run for at least another five years without compromising safety. One of its chief missions is producing medical isotopes. The current operating licence expires Oct. 31.
Tritium is a low-energy, radioactive form of hydrogen generated in the heavy-water used to moderate nuclear fission.
The tribunal seemed surprised to learn of the leak and that it has been depositing small amounts of tritium into the Ottawa River since the 1960s."
Ottawa Citizen
