I feel very very strongly…

I feel very very strongly that Ontario should recognize the risk of a Fukushima-scale accident and meet public expectations of protection in the event of a worst-case nuclear accident on the Great Lakes.

Ontario should commit to meet or exceed international best practices for nuclear emergency response planning and preparedness, and put in place emergency plans to protect the public in the event of a level 7 accident on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).

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

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. Emergency plans also need to be adapted to meet the special needs of vulnerable communities, such as the elderly or hospital patients. The experience of vulnerable people in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina was agonizingly documented by Sheri Fink, and her research after that catastrophe shows how much work on that issue alone is needed and how important it is.

[Original Comment ID: 210392]