- Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area
- P.O. Box 981, Pembroke, Ontario K8A 7M5
- Tel. : (613) 735-4876 Fax: (613) 735-6444
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- August 30, 1999
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- Dr. Michael Corriveau
- Renfrew County and District Health Unit
- 7 International Drive
- Pembroke, ON K8A 6W5
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- Dear Dr. Corriveau:
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- It was a pleasure to meet with you last May 25
to discuss our group's concerns about tritium emissions from SRB Technologies
(Canada) Inc. We appreciate your willingness to share information and views.
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- Since meeting with you in May, we have received
reports on vegetation samples that we had analyzed for tritium content
by the Environmental Isotope Laboratory at the University of Waterloo,
and by Becquerel Laboratories in Missisauga, Ontario. A rhubarb sample
collected from a garden 800 m downwind from SRB had a tritium concentration
of 2000 Bq/L free water, and a control sample taken near Golden Lake had
a tritium concentration of 2 Bq/L. A sample of aspen leaves collected about
50 m behind the plant had a tritium concentration of 1890 Bq/L free water.
The latter sample had a larger concentration of tritium than any of the
aspen leaf samples analyzed by Robert Brown of AECL in his 1978 study of
environmental tritium in trees in the vicinity of the Chalk River Nuclear
Laboratories.
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- We believe that this level of contamination is
unacceptable and we have written to SRB General Manager Stephan Levesque
to request that SRB install a pollution control device to virtually eliminate
environmental releases of tritium. We have also written to Dr. Agnes Bishop
of the Atomic Energy Control Board requesting that installation of such
a device be made a condition for re-licensing of SRB later this year. Your
copies of these letters are enclosed.
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- Sincerely yours,
- Ole Hendrickson, Ph.D.
- Researcher, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County
and Area
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- Encl.
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- Reference: Brown, R.M. 1978. Environmental tritium
in trees. International Atomic Energy
- Agency IAEA-SM-232/44. Pages 405-418.
Tritium test results (may take a few
seconds to download)
- CCRC Home Page