I don't believe Ontario's…

I don't believe Ontario's proposed nuclear emergency planning is adequate:

The Ministry has acknowledged it doesn’t have the independent capacity to model major accidents. The Ministry has relied on a CNSC study that evaluates accidents much smaller than Fukushima along with a new federal study that hasn’t yet been published. At the same time, pathways to Fukushima-scale radiation releases have been identified at the Bruce, Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations. Further, Germany and Switzerland modelled Fukushima-scale accidents at all of their nuclear stations and found a need to expand emergency measures.

A Fukushima-scale accident will lead to significant contamination of the Great Lakes, but Ontario has no plans or strategies on how to address this.

In the event of a major Fukushima-scale accident, the government will need to determine what land is permanently abandoned and what land will be reclaimed. Ontario effectively has no guidance on evacuee return. The government’s discussion paper makes no recommendations on land recovery and evacuee return. In its evaluation of Canada’s regulatory framework, the Convention on Nuclear Safety criticized the lack of land recovery guidelines in Canadian nuclear emergency response plans.

While the current public consultation is a good step forward, it is occurring almost four years after the original commitment and six years after Fukushima. The Ministry has continued its practice of consulting with industry behind closed doors without public oversight. The Ministry has systematically refused to respond to Freedom of Information requests.

Switzerland is preparing plans for large-scale evacuations and the need to care for evacuees for long periods of time. Ontario should too.

Ontario should be able to protect drinking water supplies in the event of a nuclear accident at any of the twenty-five reactors that line the Great Lakes.

Ontario’s nuclear emergency response plan should be reviewed regularly and transparently.

Emergency plans need to be adapted to meet the special needs of vulnerable communities, such as the elderly or hospital patients.

Planning for major accidents means Ontario needs to expand emergency planning areas. Ontario should expand its evacuation zones to at least 20 km around each nuclear station to match real-world experience and the best practices set by other countries, such as Switzerland.

[Original Comment ID: 210451]