Activists not convinced by testing results
While federal agency says beryllium levels are not a danger, CARN activists say it’s still too much of a risk
Neighbourhood activists say they don’t trust new data from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission that found BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada’s Peterborough operations are not putting either the environment or human health at risk.
On Monday the commission released a report on the results of soil resampling it conducted over the summer around BWXT on Monaghan Road, with a special focus on the Prince of Wales Public School playground across the street.
The testing found that all concentrations of beryllium in soil measured by partial digestion method are in the range of normal levels for Ontario and “well below” guidelines for the protection of environmental and human health.
It also found that beryllium levels in sampling between 2014 and 2020 “are not statistically different” over those six years.
But that’s not reassuring for Kathryn Campbell of the group Citizens Against Radioactive Neighbourhoods (CARN). She’s been organizing pickets on Saturdays outside BWXT for months.
Campbell points out that elsewhere in the same CNSC report the levels of beryllium — which is a carcinogen — in the soil at locations such as Prince of Wales Public School increases.
“The raw scores are going up — they can’t question that,” she said, adding that it’s “splitting hairs” to say it’s not enough of an increase to make it statistically different over time.
BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada manufactures nuclear fuel bundles in Peterborough and assembles uranium dioxide pellets that are manufactured in Toronto.
Its licence expires at the end of 2020 and the company has applied for a new licence with one change: BWXT would like to be allowed to move the pelleting operation from Toronto to Peterborough.
Although the CNSC has a staff assessment recommending that the pelleting be allowed in Peterborough, the commission has not made a decision yet. That decision will come following the soil resampling as well as a hearing in Toronto and in Peterborough in early March.
Beryllium is a heavy metal, and although it’s used in production at BWXT, a company release from earlier this year notes that it wouldn’t be used in the pelleting process.
George Fogarasi, another member of the neighbourhood group CARN who acts as its spokesperson, said on Tuesday the level of risk doesn’t matter to him as much as the potential health consequences that can occur from exposure to a toxin such as beryllium.