Pickering nuclear plant risks questioned
Re Painting a picture of nuclear meltdown, March 13 Here we go again: From the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, a fear-mongering, unscientific article on nuclear power.
We have had more than 70 years of nuclear power in this province providing more than 60 per cent of our electrical needs. Canada has also been a pioneer and world leader in the use of radioisotopes used for diagnostic and remedial health care. No one has died due to Canada’s nuclear power industry.
The Pickering nuclear power plant could withstand a collision with a Boeing 747 without causing harm to the public because of its stringent fail-safe design. And I seriously contest the map showing the direction, spread and concentration of radiation in the unlikely event of a nuclear accident at the Pickering plant.
We should not fear radiation but we should, and do in this province, treat it with the respect it deserves — so that we can appreciate the risk of radiation but also its more than considerable benefits. Public education about radiation is important. This fear-mongering article does little to enhance that objective. Don Bell, retired radiation health scientist, Woodbridge It’s good to see the Ontario Clean Air Alliance raise awareness of the potential risks and costs of an accident at the Pickering nuclear plant.
But I believe it is wrong for the report to assume the same weather conditions as the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Environment Canada’s long-term data indicates that most wind over Toronto would blow nuclear fallout out over the lake and east of Pickering.
This would probably cause significantly less impact than reported, and may be why the Pickering and Darlington plants were built downwind from Toronto. Jacques Charbin, Toronto Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of geography (or Ontario) knows that our prevailing winds go west to east. In a normal scenario, any meltdown and its ejected gases would flow east, down the St. Lawrence, not over the Golden Horseshoe, as this map from the Ontario Clean Air Alliance suggests.
We should be wary of the perils of nuclear power, especially ancient nuclear plants, but sky-is-falling reports like this do little more than make their promoters seem like cranks. T. Berto, University of Guelph