CNL working to accomplish responsible action in managing Canada’s nuclear research and development legacy: McBrearty

Re: "If we’re going to spend a billion dollars a year managing our nuclear waste, let’s do it right," (The Hill Times, Dec. 7, by Lynn Jones). I am writing to correct the many inaccuracies published in the opinion article submitted by Ms. Jones. To start, let’s agree on the facts: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) provides management and operations services to our client, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). As a federal Crown corporation, AECL owns the assets and environmental liabilities that CNL manages. It is true that in 2015, CNL was hired to provide these services to AECL following a rigorous and transparent procurement process that began in 2013, and only after a lengthy, government-led restructuring review. It is also true that CNL is owned by three global engineering firms. And as Ms. Jones contends, CNL is committed to doing “it right," as is AECL, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Canada’s nuclear regulator. This is where the accuracies end. First, this restructuring established a basis for short-term and long-term planning. Prior to 2015, funding to AECL came on an annual basis, without certainty for future years. For a large nuclear research facility, this rendered things difficult to manage and to properly plan a program of work. The restructuring also came with an important commitment by the Government of Canada to accelerate AECL’s environmental remediation efforts. This is why Ms. Jones may have noticed an apparent “jump” in funding—we are getting more funding to accelerate our activities, reduce risks and protect the environment. This funding is also given to AECL, not to CNL. Each year, AECL sets annual objectives, outlining “what they want." CNL then shows AECL “how it will accomplish” the work. This is reviewed by AECL, adjusted, and then approved, enabling CNL to execute the work against the agreed scope and budget. The funding is then provided by AECL. For example, these funds have recently been used to build three new facilities, conduct research to help strengthen Canada’s counter-terrorism posture at the border, pay for utilities, and, as mentioned by Ms. Jones, decommission more than 100 outdated buildings and pieces of infrastructure on the shores of the Ottawa River. This is referred to as our ‘environmental remediation management’ mission. Some of AECL’s old buildings contain low-level radioactive contamination. They are also well beyond their useful life and must be decommissioned and safely isolated to protect the environment and the public. Since Chalk River Laboratories is already a nuclear research facility with approximately 3,800 hectares of land and all of the necessary support services, including environmental monitoring, security and licensing, our proposed solution is to construct a highly engineered containment mound to contain this material and protect the surrounding environment. Known as the near surface disposal facility (NSDF), this proposed facility would feature a base liner and final cover systems that are more than two metres thick each, both of which include layers that are impermeable over the facility design life, and a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant to remove radiological and chemical contaminants. The NSDF will contain only low-level radioactive waste, which contains radionuclides that require isolation and containment for only a few hundred years. CNL has designed the NSDF to last well in excess of 550 years, at which point the radioactivity from the waste will have decayed to levels you would find in the natural environment, posing no harm to the public or the environment, all while protecting the river that our employees swim in and drink from. The NSDF is very similar to what has already been built and now capped in Clarington, Ont., as well in other countries around the world. Regardless, our solution is undergoing a rigorous technical and safety review as part of the environmental assessment process conducted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to ensure that the NSDF is ultimately safe to the public and the environment. Most importantly, all of these activities, including our proposed decommissioning projects for old research reactors in Rolphton, Ont., and Pinawa, Man., are subject to AECL approval, and a federal government-led, and very public, environmental assessment process by Canada’s nuclear regulator, the CNSC. In closing, CNL is working to accomplish precisely what Ms. Jones and others are demanding—responsible action in managing Canada’s nuclear research and development legacy—a legacy that has provided Ontario with 60 per cent of its electricity, carbon-free; nuclear medicine to more than one billion patients; and continues to responsibly support ongoing research and development in order to prevent climate change, fight cancer, and create thousands of jobs in the Ottawa Valley and beyond. Joe McBrearty CNL president and CEO Chalk River, Ont.