“The monitoring data collected by SRBT since the last licence renewal continue to be within the range predicted from CNSC staff’s modeling assessment conducted in 2010, as shown in figures 4 and 5, using the two monitoring wells in close proximity to SRBT as an example. The relatively good match between the modeling results and measurements provides validation to CNSC staff’s 2010 prediction on the behaviors of tritium in the groundwater system. It also demonstrates that releases of tritium resulting from SRB’s operation are under control and the tritium movement in groundwater around the SRB facility is well understood”

Here is what independent scientist, Dr. Ole Hendrickson found when he looked at the same data:

“In fact, Figure 5 indicates a poor match between the modeling results and actual tritium measurements in monitoring MW07-13.  None of the results for the 15 most recent samples taken from this monitoring well are within the range predicted by CNSC staff’s modeling assessment.  All had consistently higher tritium contamination than predicted by CNSC staff.”

Dr. Hendrickson goes on to say:

“Even more troubling is that the Environmental Assessment Information Report omits data for the other two monitoring wells modeled in the Update on Tritium Contamination in Groundwater at SRBT:  MW07-18 and MW07-29.  In these two wells, the agreement between the CNSC staff model and actual measurements is very poor.  Table 1 shows that during 2014, MW07-18 and MW07-29 had average tritium contamination levels 3.3 and 10.9 times higher than CNSC staff predictions, respectively.

“One must conclude that the statement on page 11 of 18 of the Environmental Assessment Information Report that “SRB’s operation has not adversely affected the groundwater quality” is false.  The mismatch between predicted and measured groundwater tritium contamination indicates that releases of tritium resulting from SRBT’s operations are not under control and the tritium movement in groundwater around the SRBT facility is not well understood.”

You can read Dr. Hendrickson’s full report, prepared for The First Six Years, here on the TAP website:  Tritium Behaviour in the Vicinity of SRB Technologies

Dr. Ole Hendrickson in his report prepared for The First Six Years, noted the following statement by CNSC staff:

“radioactivity measured in water, air, soil, vegetation, milk, wine, fruits and vegetables samples…are within natural background levels”

Background tritium levels are considered to be 2 Bq/l according to CNSC. Several vegetable samples from Bowdens Gardens in Pembroke measured in the hundreds of becquerels per litre of tritium. CNSC staff’s statement (in quotation marks above)  therefore reveals a shocking misunderstanding of what background tritium levels are, or a deliberate attempt to mislead readers.

Additional problems noted by Dr. Hendrickson  include: lack of information on methodology employed for sample analysis, use of non-standard units (Bq/kg fresh weight), lack of clarity as to whether tritium concentrations in vegetation include organically-bound tritium, and the failure to provide a source for “Guidance/Reference levels”

TAP suggests that staff responsible for stating that tritium levels in water, air, soil, vegetation, milk, wine, fruite and vegetables are within natural background levels, should be fired, or at the very least sent back to school to learn basic science.

It is patently ridiculous that intervenors who spend  hundreds of hours researching and preparing submissions, essentially doing the CNSC’s work for it, are restricted to a 10-minute oral presentation. Even those intervenors who receive funding from the CNSC to partially compensate them for time and expenses involved in presenting, are restricted to 10 minutes.

In today’s hearing, for example, the First Six Years received intervenor funding and hired Dr. Ian Fairlie and Dr. Ole Hendrickson to prepare reports on The Hazards of Tritium Releases and SRB Pembroke and Tritium Behaviour in the Environment near Pembroke. You can read these reports in full here on the TAP website (links below). The First Six Years will be restricted to a 10 minute time slot for the oral presentation, time to cover only a small fraction of the substantive new information from the two reports.

The Hazards of Tritium Releases at SRB Pembroke 

Tritium Behaviour in the Vicinity of SRB Technologies

Intervenors will include the following:

Dr. Ian Fairlie and Kelly O’Grady on behalf of The First Six Years

Dr. Gordon Edwards on behalf of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

Dr. Ole Hendrickson on behalf of Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Ottawa Riverkeeper

Prevent Cancer Now

Science for Peace

and several individuals.

CCNR points out that Pembroke has been subjected to widespread tritium contamination due to incompetence of the regulator, CNSC, formerly the Atomic Energy Control Board. AECB essentially granted SRBT a license to market nuclear waste (tritium) that had been carefully segregated from heavy water by Ontario Power Generation and stored in stainless steel containers in a concrete vault at the Darlington Tritium Removal Facility. AECB allowed SRB to set up in a populated area in Pembroke, close to residences and businesses, with no exclusion zone. AECB did not properly oversee SRBT’s activities or require environmental monitoring for the first decade of its operation.

The Coalition urges current commission members to not compound the mistakes of their predecessors by allowing tritium emissions to continue in Pembroke, given that even if emissions are better controlled than before, tritium levels will continue to increase in the environment, due to the long half-life of tritium. CCNR argues that the SRBT facility should be either shut down altogether unless they can reduce radioactive emissions to zero, or they should be forced to relocate to an industrial or research site with an enforced exclusion zone such as Chalk River Labs.

The Coalition also raises serious concerns about the potential for tritium in the tubes that are filled at SRBT in Pembroke to end up in nuclear weapons.

The City of Pembroke’s sewage treatment plant receives SRBT’s liquid discharges of tritium.  Some of the tritium becomes incorporated in sewage sludge, while the remainder is discharged to the Ottawa River.  A recently published study, Measurements and Dose Consequences of Tritium in Municipal Sewage Sludge, found that Pembroke had the highest levels of tritium contamination in sewage sludge of any city studied, at 34 Bq/kg of HTO, and 400 Bq/kg of OBT, or 1800 Bq/kg dry weight (CNSC 2015c).  According to this study, “A 38 percent increase was observed in the measured OBT concentration of the 2014 sample compared to the one obtained in 2013.”

The study does not examine the potential for tritium contamination of soil and crop plants if Pembroke sewage sludge were to be spread as biosolids on agricultural land.  It says that sewage sludge from Pembroke’s sewage treatment plant “is currently disposed of at the Ottawa Valley Waste Recovery Centre” (CNSC 2015c).

TAP says a 10-year license is not appropriate given the history of license violations and environmental tritium contamination at this facility. 

On Saturday, September 29, friends of Rosalie Bertell will gather at Bloor Street United Church, 300 Bloor Street West at 7.00 pm ( St. George subway) to remember one of the most influential people of our time. 

She was a Grey Nun, scientist,author, global citizen and inspiration to all who work for a healthy environment.  Rosalie defied the entrenched interests to oppose everything nuclear from the Marshall Islands to the disasters in Japan. 

Her opposition to  nuclear power as the source of radioactive contamination and nuclear weapons was a constant theme.

Please come to share in this memorial event and share your stories. Everyone welcome.

Sponsored by the International Institute of Concern for Public Health.

Marion Odell, President

Dr. Bertell entered the field of cancer research at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo in the 1970s. What started there grew into a lifetime devoted to research, writing, public speaking andadvocacy work on the effects of low-level radiation on human health.

Prior to founding the International Institute of Concern for Public Health in Toronto, Canada in 1984, she was an Energy/Public Health specialist at the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto for four years. Sister traveled the globe, researching and advising ways of dealing with the chemical and nuclear hazards which endanger the environment and erode the health of people worldwide until shortly before her death.

Sister Rosalie authored two books, No Immediate Danger (1985) and Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War (2000) ) and more than a hundred articles. She was named to the Global 500 Rollof Honour 1993 (United Nations Environment Programme), and was the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, December, 1986.

Among other accolades, Sister Rosalie received numerous honorary doctorates in recognition of her scholarly and professional work and her efforts as a social justice advocate.

Born and educated in Buffalo, New York, she earned her BA in Math/Physics/Education from D’Youville College. She was in the Buffalo Carmelite Community 1951-1956, leaving for health reasons. Before entering the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart in 1958, she served on the faculty of Catholic University, Washington, DC for a year.

From Catholic University, she received a Masters in Mathematics/Philosophy and a Doctorate in Mathematics/Biology/ Biometrics.

Sister Rosalie was in administration and on the faculty of Sacred Heart Junior College in Yardley, PA for ten years. She taught at D’Youville Academy in Chamblee, GA and was an Associate Professor of Mathematics for four years at D’Youville College.

In addition to her religious family, Sister Rosalie is survived by nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, 1750 Quarry Rd., Yardley, PA 19067-3998.

Wake Service was at 7 PM on Sunday, June 17 and the funeral Mass was at 10 AM on Monday, June 18 in Sacred Heart Chapel at the Grey Nuns’ Motherhouse in Yardley, PA.

Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem, PA. Funeral arrangements by Beck Givnish