Letter to Bill Pilkington
Letter to Bill Pilkington, president of Atomic Energy of Canada, asking for information about quantities of tritium released to the Ottawa River
Bill Pilkington, Senior Vice-President,
Chief Nuclear Officer for AECL’s Research and Technology Operations,
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited,
Chalk River Ontario K0J 1J0
February 16 2009
Dear Mr. Pilkington:
The public and the House of Commons have been given assurances by the Minister of Natural Resources that no radioactivity has leaked into the Ottawa River as a result of the heavy water spill at Chalk River’s NRU reactor on December 5 2008.
Our information suggests that trillions of becquerels of tritium had already been released into the atmosphere when these assurances were given, some of which would surely find their way into the Ottawa River, and tens of trillions of becquerels of tritium in liquid form are being released (or have already been released) into the Ottawa River by Chalk River authorities, with the permission of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, as a direct result of the heavy water spill at the NRU reactor on December 5, 2008.
We believe that the public has the right to know the amount of tritium that has been released into the environment as a result of this accidental spill and subsequent decisions made by AECL and CNSC authorities. Please provide the correct figures for the total amount of tritium (in becquerels) released into the atmosphere and the total amount of tritium (in becquerels) released or planned to be released into the Ottawa River as a result of the December 5 incident.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yours very truly,
Gordon Edwards, Ph.D.,
53 Dufferin Road, Hampstead QC, H3X 2X8
e-mail: ccnr@web.ca phone: (514) 489 5118
For the Tritium Awareness Project
cc. Minister of Natural Resources
Mayors of Ottawa, Pembroke, and Petawawa