Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am happy to be here to discuss with you the role of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, especially with regard to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, since the recent shutdown of the National Research Universal reactor.
This is the third opportunity I have had to appear before this committee in less than a year, the most recent previous occasion being on February 24, 2009, to discuss a heavy-water leak from the NRU in December 2008.
I am sure that by now members of the committee are quite familiar with the CNSC, but I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of a few key points.
The CNSC is Canada's only nuclear regulator, and nuclear regulation is exclusively a federal jurisdiction. The CNSC is an effective and independent regulator. It is a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal that operates under the Nuclear Safety Control Act. Its mandate is very clear: it regulates for the protection of health, safety, and security of Canadians and the environment, and as well it respects Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The commission's decisions are final and binding. They are subject to review only by the Federal Court, and not by the government. When making its decisions, members of the commission take into account all relevant factors without compromising safety.
The CNSC's regulatory scope stretches from nuclear power reactors to uranium mines and mills, from fuel fabrication facilities and waste management to nuclear substances and radiation devices, and to many other facilities and activities in between.
How good Canada's nuclear regulatory framework is and how well we are doing as a nuclear regulator is currently being assessed by a team of 20 international experts from 13 countries, under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. These experts arrived in Canada last Sunday and will wrap up their activities on June 12. They will be visiting many sites across Canada during their stay. They will release a publicly available, comprehensive report sometime in the fall.
Let me turn to the ongoing outage of the NRU. To quote Mr. Richard Meserve, the chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Group and the former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Guarding against the rare but possibly catastrophic accident requires eternal vigilance and a never-ending fight against complacency”. This is what the CNSC does.
CNSC staff are located and work on-site at Chalk River Laboratories and oversee all licensed activities that AECL conducts with respect to the NRU. These activities include the import of nuclear material to CRL, which is irradiated in the NRU, then removed and processed to extract molybdenum-99. The CNSC also oversees the transport of the moly-99 from CRL to MDS Nordion in Kanata, Ontario.
With respect to medical radioisotopes, the CNSC issues licences for the production, processing, transport, import, export, and possession of medical isotopes.
Health Canada regulates the use of biologics, which include radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals. CNSC staff is ready to consider and respond quickly to requests from licensees for licence amendments to possess increased quantities of alternative radioisotopes, such as thallium-201.
It is important to understand that CNSC is not responsible for making sure that there is a sufficient supply of isotopes. The CNSC is, however, responsible for making sure that, whatever isotope is being produced, it is done in a safe way.
Following the tripping of the reactor on Thursday, May 14, 2009, the CNSC was informed by AECL on May 15 of signs of a heavy-water leak from the NRU. AECL decided to keep the reactor shut down, and CNSC agreed with this decision.
Later in the day, AECL reported to the CNSC and posted a bulletin on its public website regarding the presence of a small heavy-water leak, indicating that the reactor was safely shut down and that the leak posed no threat to workers, the public, the environment, or nuclear safety.
AECL also noted that the heavy-water leak rate was approximately five kilograms per hour and that virtually all heavy water was being captured and stored in drums. However, a small amount of that heavy water has evaporated and continues to evaporate, resulting in releases of tritium to the environment through the NRU ventilation system. These releases have been and remain well below CNSC regulatory limits and do not pose a risk to the health or safety of the public or our environment.
I would like to note that AECL demonstrated an adherence to good safety culture practices by keeping the NRU safely shut down until the source of the leak was identified. As AECL determines the course of future action regarding the leak, the CNSC will exercise our mandate and oversee AECL's activities, in the interest of protecting health, safety, and security of the public and our environment.
Turning toward the future of the NRU, CNSC and AECL have a formal protocol for the 2011 licensing of the NRU that defines the regulatory requirements, including a schedule of submissions. The first major submission from AECL will be an integrated safety review intended to identify the necessary improvements to the NRU to support an application for a further possible ten years of operation. This submission, planned for March 2010, will include a complete assessment of safety-related equipment and components in the NRU, including the reactor vessel. AECL will then submit an overall safety case for the re-licensing of the NRU in January 2011, and the commission will hold public hearings in the second half of the year to consider such an application.
In our previous appearance before you, both CNSC and AECL promised to review and improve the release of public information. This was demonstrated by the proactive information disclosure by both organizations about this current event.
AECL has continued to keep the CNSC, the government, and the public informed, throughout the investigation process and now as it prepares to respond. The CNSC has made available on our website all relevant information on the NRU going back to November 2007. Let me assure you, our interest is clear: making accurate information available as broadly as possible and as quickly as possible.
As per our regulations, this leak is a significant event, and as such it must be reported to the commission. Further, AECL is scheduled to appear before the commission on June 11, 2009, at a regularly scheduled public hearing. CNSC staff and AECL will present a significant development report to the commission at that time, including the most recent information on the NRU. That meeting will be broadcast on our public website. If members of this committee aren't able to make it to 280 Slater Street to attend the meeting in person, I encourage you to take it in virtually.
To conclude, the shortage of medical radioisotopes is obviously of great concern to Canadians. As far as the CNSC is concerned, the self-imposed safe shutdown and continued outage of NRU by AECL as a result of a heavy-water leak represents a strong adherence to good safety culture. CNSC is ready and able to consider any proposal for the safe return of operations of the NRU or any other isotope-producing facility.
Thank you.
