Today, in the House of Commons, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said:
Mr. Speaker, … there was no radioactive leak into the Ottawa River …
And she appears to be quite right.
But, as the documents she tabled today in the House indicate, there will be a release of radioactive water into the Ottawa River:
The collected heavy water, along with other waste water from the Chalk River site, will be treated at Chalk River's Waste Treatment Centre to reduce contamination. Prior to any release of water to the river, water is treated to remove the majority of radio-nuclides. All applicable release limits are agreed with the CNSC, and adhered to by AECL, consistent with Ministry of Environment regulations.
In instances of handling water with tritium, which is not removed in the treatment process, concentration levels dictate whether the water will be stored or released. Releases from AECL's Waste Treatment Centre are carefully monitored and released at a controlled rate, subject to provincial and federal regulatory limits. AECL routinely monitors water in the Ottawa River for concentration of tritium. For example downstream from Chalk River Labs, at Petawawa, tritium concentrations in the Ottawa River are similar to the naturally-occurring level upstream of Chalk River, and negligible compared to the Canadian drinking water standard.
Technorati Tags: chalk river, nuclear reactors