Radiation is homeowners’ problem, says Canada’s nuclear regulator
Federal nuclear regulators say dangerous levels of radiation in and around homes in Elliot Lake, Ontario, are not their problem.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) says homeowners are responsible for dealing with the toxic effects of tailings from nearby uranium mines that were reportedly used as backfill on their properties.
The CNSC posted a statement on its website and Twitter feed Tuesday following recent media coverage of the radioactive waste, first reported by the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) and the Toronto Star.
In the statement, Ramzi Jammal, Executive Vice President and Chief Regulatory Operations Officer of CNSC, said his department is responsible only for radioactive materials related to nuclear energy production and transportation.
“The materials in question have never been chemically processed; they were simply broken up and moved a short distance from their place of origin,” Jammal wrote. “This waste rock is naturally radioactive at levels consistent with the region; it was not subject to any of the processes of the nuclear fuel cycle.
“For these reasons, CNSC staff assess this waste rock to be composed of naturally occurring nuclear materials that are outside the regulatory authority of the CNSC,” he added.
Jennifer Carling, one of the homeowners in the town north of Lake Huron whose house sits above the radioactive waste, called the response “nonsense.”
“If this is the standard they’re clearly demonstrating now, what’s going to happen in the future?” she asked. “If he is so convinced that everything is natural and safe, I would recommend and invite him to buy this house for his grandchildren to grow up in.”
The Star/IJB reported that recent tests showed residents of four homes in Elliot Lake were exposed to radiation levels between eight and 32 times the maximum prescribed by the CNSC.
The effects could extend to 60 homes, which were moved from the area around the uranium mines to the town of Elliot Lake in the 1960s and reportedly placed atop radioactive residues and infill, according to a wealth of documents compiled by the Canadian Environmental Law Association .
The CNSC “publicly establishes itself as a life cycle regulator of the entire nuclear process, and they have a mandate to protect the public and the environment,” said Jacqueline Wilson, one of the association’s lawyers representing the homeowners. “That is a very important public mandate that forms the basis of Canadians’ confidence in the nuclear power system and I think this letter undermines that.
“Ultimately, it is not a homeowner’s responsibility to accept radioactive mining waste on their property,” she said. “The various federal government agencies must stop shifting responsibility. Uranium mining tailings are radioactive and hazardous…and must be removed from our customers’ private property.”
Responding to questions, the CNSC said its mandate is “to regulate the use of nuclear energy and materials” but it does not “regulate mining waste rock at unlicensed sites.”
MiningWatch Canada’s Jamie Kneen said the CNSC relies on a legalistic distinction between “waste,” which falls under the federal nuclear oversight regime, and “waste rock,” which does not.
“Waste rock is anything below the threshold to be processed as ore, which is determined by economics, not chemistry,” he said. “Both have radiation levels that are much higher than what you would generally expect in the Canadian Shield.”
In any case, it should be easy to figure out whether the houses were built on waste rock, which would be in large chunks, or waste, which would have been ground into fine sand, he said.
Kneen disagreed with the CSNC’s claim that “all tailings are currently stored and managed” in federally regulated facilities.
“There were piles of trash around Elliot Lake. Kids used to ride their bikes there,” he said. “I do not believe (according to the CNSC’s claim) that the mines actually kept all tailings under legal control. Maybe they’ve gotten better at it in recent years. But that was certainly not the case in the early days of Elliot Lake.”
After dangerous levels of radiation were discovered in Elliot Lake homes in the 1970s, mining companies paid to install fans and vents in dozens of homes to vent radioactive radon gas and excavate at least one driveway to remove contaminated rock beneath.
The CNSC says homeowners who received these radiation mitigation systems signed contracts at the time they “agreed to be responsible for the long-term care and maintenance of these radon mitigation measures.”
But retirees who moved to Elliot Lake in the 1990s and 2000s say they weren’t aware of the radiation, these contracts, or even the purpose of the fans when they bought the affected homes.
The federal government had made commitments to remove contaminated soil to at least one homeowner in 2000, according to a series of letters shared with the IJB and the Star.
In Port Hope, Ont., the federal government is currently spending more than $2 billion to have radioactive soil removed and transported to permanent storage facilities.
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