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Report Says Nuclear Plants Are Poisoning Our Water
Radioactive pollution double a decade ago, says Sierra Club
Nuclear facilities and power plants are contaminating local Canadian food and water with radioactive waste that increases risks of cancer and birth defects, says a new report to be released today.
The report, Tritium on Tap, produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, warned that radioactive emissions from various nuclear plants across the country have more than doubled over the past decade. The figures were based on statistics compiled by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission which measured pollution coming from the plants.
Although Canadian guidelines have suggested that the existing levels of tritium in the water are safe, the report cites recent peer-reviewed studies, including a recent review by the UK's Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters, that suggest the opposite.
"Once in our body, tritium enters our DNA, fat, proteins and carbohydrates -- and that is where it does its damage from close range," said the Sierra Club report. "It is a carcinogen and causes birth defects."
The report noted that other jurisdictions such as the European Union and California have drinking water guidelines for tritium that are hundreds of times stronger than Canada's guidelines. A recent report by the Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council, released in May, has also suggested more stringent drinking water standards to restrict tritium.
With some radioactive pollution getting into the ground and locally-produced food, Mike Buckthought, who wrote the Sierra Club report, said the best solution is to eliminate pollution from nuclear reactors by promoting more renewable forms of energy.
"We need to phase out nuclear power and look for safer alternatives such as wind and solar energy," said Buckthought, who is the national climate change campaigner for Sierra Club.
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has confirmed a "controlled release" of tritium into the Ottawa River from December 2008 to February 2009 but said this leak did not pose any risk to the environment because it respected the existing regulations.
However, the Sierra Club said tests of the water done by a lab at the University of Waterloo revealed tritium levels that were five times higher than in water at other locations without any nearby nuclear plants.
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9 Comments so far
Show AllWhat a shock! We are drowning in our own shit and the tiny fraction of that waste which is the most toxic has a half life of millions of years.
Even organized crime bosses know you don't shit where you live.
The problem now is that there are so many of us that you can't throw anything away because nowhere is 'away'.
Every place is someplace.
My guess is the official statement concerning the "controlled release" of tritium involved a lot of PR spinning.
If I took an educated guess I would say that the "controlled release" was follow by either an "Oops", or a "Holy Sh!?" by some technician at the facility...
Which came first - the release or the control?
Joe
The "controlled" part probably refers, as noted by NC-Tom, to the PR, not the release itself. So long as we cannot completely trust government and corporate industry, I have to repeat that old mantra, "No more nukes!".
The very interesting PBS series 'On Becoming Human' included in the last segment the remark that homo sapiens is much less diverse genetically than chimps and other 'cousins' of ours. Perhaps the introduction of tritium and other readioactive genetic modifiers into our environment will increase that diversity? :P
From the article:
"The report, Tritium on Tap, produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, warned that radioactive emissions from various nuclear plants across the country have more than doubled over the past decade..."
Since no new nuclear plants have been built in North America essentially since Three Mile Island in 1979, why would radioactive emissions more than double in the last decade? Given that Canada has spent much of the past decade governed by "conservatives" who don't like government regulation, one can surmise that the existing sources of emissions have been getting away with more than doubling the level of poisons they "leak" into the environment.
Has anyone been monitoring the air around those sources lately?
Just wait until these old nuclear facilities have to be decommissioned. As Nietzsche observes above, "The problem now is that there are so many of us that you can't throw anything away because nowhere is 'away'."
One can only hope that Canada stops copying the gringo neocons and strikes out in a new direction. The "English speaking nations"---Canada, the U.S. Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand---need a new role model. Our existing one has failed. Barbecued tar sands for dinner, anyone? How about skewered Harper instead? Umm, tasty.
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Controlled release means ... someone intentionally opened a valve. This happens a lot with all sorts of effluent from public wastewater treatment plants and corporations for a lot of different reasons ... and none of them good. Specifically ... none should be accepted ... under any circumstances.
Billy---
Very interesting report on medical isotopes.
But are you implying that the story is sort of skewed by generalizing to all or most nuclear facilities what amounts to a point-source tritium pollution source?
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