Pickering B Nuclear Plant: Safety has Eroded
Canada's nuclear safety watchdog warned last month that it was concerned about an "erosion of safety margins" at the Pickering B nuclear station near Toronto.
A letter from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission surfaced Tuesday on the eve of a hearing in which Ontario Power Generation will make the case for renewing the station's operating licence until 2014.
The commission's assessment of the station was sent to Patrick McNeil, a senior executive at the provincially owned Crown corporation, on April 7.
"CNSC staff remain concerned with the trend in erosion of safety margins ... and expect that OPG will address the identified outstanding issues, and, in particular, will develop and implement engineered solutions to re-establish robust safety margins," says the letter.
Greenpeace obtained a copy of the document and cited it as proof the nuclear station poses an unnecessary risk to the Greater Toronto Area.
"Nuclear technology is an unforgiving technology," said Shawn Patrick Stensil, a Greenpeace researcher on energy issues.
"When your safety margins are declining, you're increasing your risk of accidents, and accidents from nuclear stations can cause irreversible harm."
Safety margins set the boundaries of acceptable risks at a nuclear facility. That risk level determines what safety systems must be in place in case of accidents.
The Pickering nuclear facility is located roughly 40 kilometres northeast of downtown Toronto. Statistics Canada's 2006 census data shows about five million people live in the Toronto census metropolitan area.
Full Article:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/05/14/pickering-nuclear.html
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