25-40% underestimates of radiation doses to 1,769 Canadian health care workers undetected for 4 years

The Star has reported that 1,769 Canadian health care workers suffered radiation doses 25 to 40% worse than they were told four years ago, due to an error in a computer program administered by Health Canada. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulates Health Canada on such matters, but both federal agencies missed the error for 4 years. Some health care workers were exposed to above permissible doses, once the error was caught. CNSC also regulates Canadian atomic reactors, and other nuclear facilities and activities. The article closed by quoting Mark Mattson of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper:

"Mark Mattson of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, who has opposed construction of new nuclear units at Darlington, said the incident raises question about the nuclear regulator – which also oversees nuclear power stations.

'The shocking thing here is that no one noticed the mistake for four years,' he said.

'Waterkeeper is very interested to see who is held accountable for this mistake. In recent years, we have become increasingly concerned that the CNSC is lax when it comes to enforcing the rules.' "

"Nuclear Reaction: Accusations of cancerous fallout divide a small Ontario town"

This article, by Kate Harries, appeared in Toronto-based Walrus Magazine in March 2008. About widespread radioactive contamination in Port Hope, Ontario, from Cameco's (formerly Eldorado's) uranium processing facilities, it provides important updates to Peggy Sanger's 1981 book Blind Faith: The nuclear industry in one small town. Pat McNamara referenced the article in his own 2009 book, Nuclear Genocide in Canada, which contains numerous updates on Port Hope, in addition to its broad overview of nuclear issues across Canada. Port Hope's contamination extends into Lake Ontario itself, source of drinking water for many millions of Americans in New York State, Canadians, and numerous Native American First Nations downstream.

The staggering costs of "cleaning up" Canada's mounting radioactive wastes

Pat McNamara writes in Nuclear Genocide in Canada (Part 4, "Nuclear Costs to Date"):

"The Canadian Government's estimate of projected cleanup costs [for radioactive wastes] has no basis in reality. They have allocated $240 million to clean up 3.5 million cubic metres of radioactive waste in Port Hope. By contrast, the Americans spent $4.4 billion on a similar sized, but far less complicated cleanup at the Fernald site in Ohio. 

Radioactive tailings from the 12 mines in Elliot Lake were dumped into ten lakes. All the lakes are dead and leaching contaminants into the watershed all the way to Lake Huron. The Serpent River watershed has been destroyed. There is no cost estimate to fix this disaster.

It will cost another $25 billion to dispose of spent reactor fuel currently being stored at reactor sites and probably $25 billion more to clean up Chalk River, Pinawa, Port Hope and other contaminated towns and mine sites."

Given the fact that many of Canada's 20 reactors are being "refurbished," to enable them to keep running and generating radioactive waste for years or even decades into the future, and that new reactors are proposed, the price tag for irradiated nuclear fuel management will only continue to climb.

The uncalculated costs of "decommissioning" Canada's many uranium mines

Pat McNamara writes in Nuclear Genocide in Canada:

"Taxpayers will have to foot the bill to remediate the abandoned uranium mines in Canada whose owners simply walked away. Many other mines simply dumped their radioactive tailings in the closest lake. These radioactive tailings ponds are contaminating downstream environments. In most cases, the tailings ponds are contained with simple earthen dams. There have been more than 30 breaches of the earthen dams at Elliot Lake since they were first put in place." (excerpt from Part 4, "Nuclear Costs to Date")

"Nuclear genocide" at Serpent River First Nation, Elliot Lake, Ontario

Uranium tailings wall at Elliot Lake, Ontario, leaking into the Serpent River watershed. Photo by Robert Del Tredichi.In Part 1 of his book overviewing the Canadian nuclear establishment's history, Nuclear Genocide, Pat McNamara included an essay on the dozen uranium mines, and associated mills and refinery, located near Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada -- adjacent to the Serpent River First Nation. Much of the essay was taken from the book This Is My Homeland, edited by journalist, Serpent River First Nation Member, and Green Party of Canada indigenous peoples affairs spokesperson Lorraine Rekmans. As documented by Gordon Edwards and Robert Del Tredichi's Nuclear Map of Canada, 145.3 million tonnes of radioactive tailings, out of a national Canadian total of 193.2 million tonnes -- a whopping 75% -- are located at the long-shuttered Elliot Lake uranium mines, on the Serpent River watershed which flows into Lake Huron at Georgian Bay. To this day, the Elliot Lake uranium tailings are still the largest source of radium discharges into the Great Lakes, the drinking water supply for 40 million people in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American First Nations.