Natural Resources committee  If you look at this chart you'll see that we actually put this on. Every time you undertake a medical process, it's around 1.2 millisievert, whereas the regulatory level is 1.0 millisievert over a year. So our standard for those operating facilities is lower than what you'd get from some medical X-rays.

Natural Resources committee  Correct.

Natural Resources committee  It goes into our waste facility and it's measured. All the material goes into one facility. Some of it goes into permanent storage, some of it is controlled and measured as they release it to the Ottawa River. There's always some sort of ongoing release well below the health limits we impose.

Natural Resources committee  Every leader manages things as he must. As far as I am concerned, it is always difficult to analyze and to measure all the risks before deciding on what to do. If the reactor is not safe, we will shut it down. However, if we can attenuate the risks, we can try to find other ways to carry on operations in a safe manner.

Natural Resources committee  An expert is working with AECL on finding ways to attenuate the risks.

Natural Resources committee  Everyone is saying that they are old machines. It is like a car: if you change the tires, the motor and all the rest—

Natural Resources committee  We've just ordered a couple of licensees, one that I don't know if you're familiar with, the Mackenzie plant, which was in trouble.... We drew an order about removing some material. We will not hesitate to take action if a facility is unsafe.

Natural Resources committee  What has happened—and again, I wasn't there, so I'm just telling you what I would do. You have to weigh risks. We have to weigh risk on the impact on the environment. When a proponent comes to us and wants to open up a new mine, we have to weigh the risk of the impact on the environment, the impact on native communities, and so on, in making a decision.

Natural Resources committee  Heavy water is when deuterium and hydrogen get together and there is another neutron in hydrogen. It is naturally occurring. I don't remember what the percentage is, maybe 10% heavier than normal water. It's a natural kind of element. It's used to moderate, by which I mean to control, the nuclear reaction in a nuclear plant.

Natural Resources committee  All facilities have a place where they collect the radioactive material and many other materials--there are all kinds of other materials. Some of them get treated; some get measured and controlled in terms of release to the outside world; some of them are stored in permanent facilities.

Natural Resources committee  It's not toxic at all. It's plain water. In fact, it will never happen because it's very expensive. I don't think anyone would just allow heavy water to flow into the water, because in fact you're reprocessing and trying to recover as much of the heavy water as you can so that you can put it back into the nuclear core.

Natural Resources committee  Tritium occurs naturally as a result of cosmic radiation, if you like. We have a chart here. If you look at the first chart, it shows that the natural background radiation for all Canadians is 2.4 millisievert. There are all kinds of nuclides in the atmosphere, and they're called background radiation.

Natural Resources committee  Obviously now, as we've admitted, Canadians want to know. We will gladly share with them more information. What was surprising, again, is that the leak was inside the machine. None of this went outside to the river, etc., and that's why we took a decision not to go public with this.

Natural Resources committee  With all due respect, I'm not a lawyer, but I know that section 19 of our act gave the government the authority to direct the commission. I also know, because our lawyer is telling us, that you cannot legislate by direction. In other words, any new mandate imposed on the commission would have to have gone through a formal legislative change, not through a direction.

Natural Resources committee  To the public.