Durham – The City of Pickering with a population of 94.000 is the host to one of North America's oldest Candu Nuclear Generating Stations. The Pickering Nuclear Generating Facility operated by OPG on the shores of Lake Ontario.
As a former Councillor for 21 years, Brenner spent much of that time dealing with issues and questions surrounding Nuclear safety in the Community. In 1994, Brenner along with a number of community and environmental groups recommended to the Ontario Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards there was a need to reduce the acceptable standards for levels of Tritium in our drinking water. At the time the standard was 40,000 Bq/L.
Following these hearings the Ontario government appointed Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards recommended that the maximum permissible concentration of tritium in drinking water be immediately reduced 70 fold to 100 Bq/L, and gradually dropped to 20 Bq/L over 5 years. According to Brenner “There was sufficient evidence supporting the recommendation that recognized potential risk to community health, however the government of the day put economics first when the Nuclear industry took the position that if the recommended standards were imposed it would create a financial hardship for the operators to make the necessary changes to comply.”
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Now 14 years later the standard is 7000Bq/L compared to the EPA USA standard of 740 Bq/L or the European Union: 100 Bq/L or the thereby making the Canadian and Ontario levels among of the highest in the world
“It remains my belief, that now is the time to seek changes to achieve what are acceptable levels of Tritium and thus raising the bar on community safety and what is acceptable to the public” says Brenner.
“While some continue to debate that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest risk to community health, Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. It is classified by the U-S EPA as a human carcinogen, as a potential cancer causing agent, suspected to a leading cause of mutating genes, promoting hereditary defects, and causing malformations in embryos and fetuses. It is also implicated in contributing to childhood leukemia and Down’s Syndrome.
Brenner is not alone in his quest for changes, the City of Toronto through its established a working group “Cancer Prevention Interest Group” and its Board of Health recommended that the City of Toronto request that the current Ontario Government revisit the recommendations of the Ontario Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards Committee and consider a more health protective standard be required. The Working Group further suggested that similar resolutions be enacted by Municipalities along Lake Ontario and in particular the GTA. Other radiation experts such as Dr. Ian Fairlie in 2007 suggested Government needed to do more until further research looks at the impact of Tritium in relationship to health risks.
The International Joint Commission, created by the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, has identified tritium as a persistent toxic substance, and a candidate for zero discharge.
In response to what happened in 1994, Brenner says “with the recent announcement for a call for proposals as to who will supply and build the next generation for Nuclear in Ontario, now is the time to set the right standard and let the bids reflect that standard rather than applying a standard that no the most others in the world would not even consider”
