cover image: Radionuclides need designation as Chemicals of Mutual

20.500.12592/snv65c

Radionuclides need designation as Chemicals of Mutual

13 May 2022

Disclaimer: The views, comments and recommendations provided in this report are those of the CELA and its author and not of its funders. [...] BRP is also the subject of a thoroughly researched report, and also was one of NAS’s pilot sites, making it the perfect representation of concerns and shortcomings for nuclear facilities on the GL. [...] NRC is not meeting GLWQA’s goal of “virtual elimination” and “zero discharge” The 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement introduced the goal of “virtual elimination” of persistent toxic substances and the technique of “zero discharge” as the method to achieve virtual elimination. [...] In 1996, the IJC recommended that radionuclides be addressed like other persistent toxic substances.44 NRC appears to make no regulatory allowance for the accumulation of past releases of radionuclides in the environment, and seems to have no interest in considering zero release policy in the future. [...] In the case of civilian nuclear reactors, NRC largely leaves monitoring of radioactive releases, and reporting of regulation breaches, to the licensee.45 So while EPA sets regulations for civilian reactors, handing over implementation and enforcement to NRC, NRC, in turn, largely hands this responsibility over to the licensees.

Authors

Fe de Leon

Pages
13
Published in
Canada