SRB tritium releases skyrocketing, now world's largest emitter of radioactive gas

Pembroke, Ontario, October 4, 2000 Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area (CCRC) recently obtained secret monitoring results of radioactive gas emissions from SRB Technologies (Canada) Inc., in Pembroke, Ontario. Results show that in 1998 this manufacturer of self-luminous lights became the world's largest point source emitter of tritium, a toxic radioactive gas.

The Concerned Citizens filed an Access to Information Program request and then appealed to the Information Commissioner before Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) staff provided the data. SRB routinely classifies all information it submits to the CNSC as "proprietary".

"In terms of radioactive disintegrations the numbers are simply staggering,," says CCRC researcher Ole Hendrickson. "The yearly releases from SRB produce not one million, not one billion, not one trillion, but more than 1000 trillion disintegrations every second - 1330 trillion, to be exact. And you have to add in what they released in 1997, 1996, 1995, and so on. More than half of what they released back in 1991, their first year of operation, is still somewhere in the environment."

SRB and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) claim these releases are harmless. SRB's model estimates a radiation dose to a Pembroke resident living closest to the facility of 0.5% of the 1 milliSievert maximum allowed by the CNSC. Estimates from the CNSC are seven times higher, at 3.5%, but CNSC staff say that the discrepancy between these results "is a natural consequence of uncertainties in the model."

"To convert an annual release of 10 with fourteen zeros Becquerels into to a public dose of 0.005 milliSievert, you have to use creative math," said Dr. Hendrickson. "SRB's model incorporates very questionable assumptions. They grossly underestimate the rate at which elemental tritium, the dominant form released by SRB, is converted to the much more dangerous form of tritiated water vapor, which is readily absorbed through skin or taken up in our lungs as we breathe."

CCRC has conducted its own urine testing of Pembroke residents living near SRB. Results show levels as high as 1010 Becquerels (radioactive disintegrations per second) per liter of urine, 500 times normal background levels. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a maximum concentration limit of 740 Becquerels per liter of tritium in drinking water. "If we were in the U.S., these levels would trigger action by the authorities," observed Dr. Hendrickson.

"Imagine what it is like to have 1000 radioactive disintegrations going off in your brain every second," Hendrickson suggested. "Our bodies have an incredible capacity to repair cellular damage, but this must be pushing the limits. This is far in excess of the natural radiation levels inside our bodies."

CCRC will appear before a Thursday October 5 CNSC hearing to request that SRB be required to install a pollution control device on its stacks. There will also be a second CNSC hearing on SRB on December 13. At that time a final decision will be made on relicensing. At present, CNSC staff propose to extend SRB's license for a full five years with no provision for pollution control.

CCRCA.