Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in urgent need of reform

 Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in urgent need of reform

There is an urgent need to reform the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and eliminate the agency’s strong tendency to prioritize industry needs over its primary mandate: protecting Canadians and the environment from radioactive hazards stemming from nuclear operations.

 

MPs tend to refer to the CNSC as a “world-class regulator,” just as Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan did in a recent keynote address that hyped the “SMR [Small Modular Nuclear Reactor] action plan for Canada.” MPs often respond to public concerns with assurances that the CNSC will look after things and base its decisions on science and

international best practices.

 

There is a jarring disconnect between such affirmative remarks by MPs and statements made in recent years about the CNSC by international peer reviewers, high-ranking Canadian officials and many others.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency recently reviewed Canada’s nuclear safety framework. It identified numerous deficiencies including: not following IAEA guidance on nuclear reactor decommissioning, failure to justify practices involving radiation sources, inadequate management systems for transporting nuclear materials, and allowing pregnant nuclear workers four times higher radiation exposures than IAEA would permit.

 

In testimony before the House Standing Committee on Natural Resources, in November 2016, Canada’s Environment Commissioner said:

 

“the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission… was quite difficult to work with… I would say that the commission was aggressive with the auditors.”

 

In April 2017, the Expert Panel on reform of environmental assessment noted in its final report that it had heard many concerns about lack of independence at the CNSC:

 

“There were concerns that these Responsible Authorities (CNSC and NEB) promote the projects they are tasked with regulating…The term “regulatory capture” was often used when participants described their perceptions of these two entities.”

 

The nuclear industry publication, Nuclear Energy Insider, recently touted Canada’s “benign regulatory environment” as a reason for SMR developers to come to Canada to experiment with and promote “small”, “modular”, nuclear reactors.

 

A Globe and Mail article in November 2018, revealed that CNSC officials had engaged in backroom lobbying to exempt small modular nuclear reactors from environmental assessment. 

 

A June 2020 briefing session for MPs and media,“Sham regulation of radioactive waste in Canada,” by the Canadian Environmental Law Association and other NGOs, outlined several ways in which the CNSC was creating “pseudo regulations” to benefit the nuclear industry and enable substandard nuclear waste facilities to receive approval and licensing.

 

An email sent by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on March 30, 2017, confirmed that the CNSC Commissioners had never refused to grant a license during the agency’s (then)17-year history.

 

A recent petition to the Auditor General entitled “Nuclear governance problems in Canada” noted that the CNSC has a mandate to protect health but lacks a health division.  A review of CNSC’s organizational chart reveals that the word health does not appear on it.

 

In November 2009, hundreds of workers at Ontario Power Generation’s Bruce nuclear plant breathed in plutonium dust (a by-product of nuclear-energy production) but the plutonium remained undetected for weeks. Many of the workers had not been given respirators. We believe it may have been the largest preventable exposure of workers to internal radioactive contamination in the history of the civilian nuclear industry. To our knowledge, no one was disciplined or held accountable for this incident.

 

In our opinion, based on many years of experience intervening at licensing hearings of the CNSC and its predecessor the Atomic Energy Control Board, the CNSC shows all the signs of being a captured regulator that prioritizes the needs of the nuclear industry over protecting Canadians and the environment.

 

Consider the background of CNSC’s current president, Rumina Velshi.  Before her appointment as CNSC president, she worked for Ontario Power Generation for eight years in senior management positions and led the OPG commercial team involved in a multi-billion dollar proposal to build new nuclear reactors. 

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that the regulatory body must be separate from “promoters of nuclear energy”. energy”. Placing an experienced promoter of nuclear business initiatives in charge of the CNSC seems to run contrary  to IAEA guidance.

 

During Ms. Velshi’s presidency, CNSC has expedited licensing processes for small modular nuclear reactors. It has also moved to allow entombment in concrete of the radioactive remains of old nuclear reactors, against the explicit advice of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

 

IAEA guidance also suggests that the CNSC should not report to the Minister of Natural Resources, given that the minister also has a mandate to promote nuclear energy under the Nuclear Energy Act. Even more

importantly, the binding international convention on Nuclear Safety to which Canada is party, clearly states:

 

“2. Each Contracting Party shall take the appropriate steps to ensure an effective separation between the functions of the regulatory body and those of any other body or organization concerned with the promotion or utilization of nuclear energy.”

 

Existing enabling legislation allows Cabinet to change the Minister to which the CNSC reports with a simple Order-In-Council decision.

 

CNSC’s tendency to prioritize industry needs is a throwback to the days

when its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Control Board, had a legal mandate to promote the nuclear industry under the Atomic Energy Control Act.

 

Times have changed, radioactive hazards are mounting, and bad decisions are being made. 

 

We need a nuclear regulatory regime that is truly focused on protecting the environment and the health of Canadians. Having the CNSC report to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change would be an important first step in the needed reforms.

Statement courtesy Lynne Jones and Gordon Edwards.