That's how much radioactive waste water is flowing into the Ottawa River from Chalk River. My question is why our party isn't taking the Harper government and its Minister of Natural Resources, Lisa Raitt to task on this. I would think the Canadian public would like to know more about 7,000 litres of radioactive water per day going into our water supply, wouldn't you?
Thank goodness for guys like Greg Weston. At least he's trying to bring it to the forefront. At what point does the government of Canada decide to protect the general public and close the reactor? Minister Raitt has been dodging this issue for the better part of 2 months. Where's the rest of the MSM?
Can you say Chernoble anyone? 7,000 litres a day!!!
6 comments:
Whooee! Don't fret, Jimmy. They tell us that the leaked water ain't really all that radioactive an', shucks, what you can't see can' hurtcha, right?
All's they gotta do is fire somebody's ass an' put in a new boss an' the whole thing'll go away fer another year, or so. By then, the coalition'll be in charge. Watch 'em punt.
JB
what's the activity on that water?
Any idea how much radioactivity is emitted from the stacks of our coal fired power plants?
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html
I wonder how the Natural Resources Minister handled spills when she was CEO of the Toronto Port Authority? I guess Mr. Harper thought he should appoint a board member to the TPA after hiring away Ms. Raitt. It was only fair.
At least it's a comfort to know that our Arctic waters will be well looked after.
Well, it would be nice to know what "very low levels" of radioactive material are, as..
"A shutdown of only a few weeks a year ago forced the cancellation of thousands of critical cancer treatments across Canada, the U.S. and parts of Europe.
Hitting the off-switch for good would cause an international health crisis."
Valid concern? Definitely.. easy answer, definitely not.
The problem, apparently, was to be solved by replacing the Chalk River reactors with the Maple Reactors.. but unfortunately, as reported in the Star in late 2007, "AECL, as part of a contract with MDS, has been working on two replacement "Maple" reactors that are well over budget and nearly 10 years behind schedule because of flaws that potentially affect safety."
It might be noted in August of 1999concerned and knowledgeable citizen groups harshly criticized the government for allowing the construction and licensing of the highly enriched uranium facility, "citing a variety of concerns including unresolved safety issues, waste disposal issues and the need to convert to the use of LEU."
Who was the government in 1999? You guessed it, the Liberal party under PM Chretien.
Point being - answers are often much more complex than we like to believe, and, as usual, no government has the monopoly on blame or can assume the ability to create easy solutions.
Oh..btw James - knowing you are one Liberal who chooses to press Iggy on his weaknesses, I noted with interest the blog today on "1anxiousliberal.wordpress.com" that for whatever reason, while the Liberal party was struggling financially to compete for donations with the Conservatives, Mr. Ignatieff apparently donated nothing - in stark contrast to the other leaders.
Curious.
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