Laserfiche WebLink
Irradiation <br /> It Comes From Hell <br /> Where does COBALT-60 come from? <br /> There is a place in Canada called Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories owned and operated <br /> by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a federal crown corporation. It is the most <br /> radioactively contaminated site in Canada, a very nuclearized country. Chalk River <br /> Nucleaz Labs (CRNL) opened under great secrecy in 1944 as a military operation. There <br /> aze several reactors as well as nucleaz fuel production and reprocessing facilities located <br /> on the 3,700 acres of the site. <br /> - Radioactive wastes have been handled very carelessly there leading to extensive ground <br /> and water contamination. Strontium-90 which lasts several hundred years and mimics <br /> calcium in the food chain, is seeping into Lake Perch. Other radioactive isotopes aze <br /> contaminating the Ottawa River and seeping into other surface and ground waters. Some <br /> radioactive isotopes last hundreds of thousands of years. <br /> -Already millions of curies of radioactive materials have been accidentally released into <br /> the air and blown downwind. <br /> - Hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed to contain the contamination, that is, if it <br /> can be contained. <br /> -There were serious accidents at nucleaz reactors on site in 1952, 1958, in Jan. 1991, and <br /> <br /> June 1991. <br /> -An old, outdated nuclear reactor -the NRU - is being kept operational to supply <br /> <br /> Nordion with Cobalt-60 and other isotopes. If AECL stops supplying Nordion, they will <br /> face a $450 million suit for breach of contract. So they keep the old, dangerous reactor <br /> going. However, it is to be shut down in the yeaz 2000. AECL supplies 90% of the <br /> world's cobalt-60. <br /> -Anew reactor, the Maple XI O, was designed but never constructed due to design flaws <br /> and budget constraints. Construction has not yet started. If the NRU is shut down in <br /> 2000, there may be NO cobalt-60 for commercial use. <br /> Information gathered from: <br /> -Gordon Edwards PhD, "Reactor Accidems at Chalk River: the Human Fallout," Canadian Coalition for <br /> <br /> Nuclear Responsibility, 236 Station Snowdoq Montreal, Quebec H3X 3T4 -Canada (ccnr@web.net] <br /> -Nuclear Awareness Project, Box 104 Uxbridge, ON L9P 1M6, Canada. [nucawareQweb.net] <br /> -AECL annual report, 1995-1996. <br /> -David Martin, "Nuclear Sunset; the Economic Costs of the Canadian Nuclear Industry," Nuclear <br /> Awareness Project, Box 104 Uxbridge, ON L9P IM6, Canada. <br /> <br />