Plutonium cleanup put at $40-million
Documents show cost of decommissioning single research site double federal estimate
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20001002/UPLUTN.html

MARK MacKINNON

Monday, October 2, 2000

OTTAWA -- The Canadian government will have to pay $40-million to decommission a single plutonium-contaminated building at Chalk River, Ont., internal documents show. The structure, known simply as Building 220, was the scene of controversy in May, 1999, when four workers who entered it were exposed to "significant levels" of radiation, even though the building had been out of use since 1957 and the workers were wearing protective clothing.

The total cost of cleaning up after Canada's Cold-War-era plutonium research is likely much higher. Building 220 is just one of five buildings at the Chalk River nuclear facility in the process of being decommissioned.

Almost every year, Auditor-General Denis Desautels chides the AECL for its bookkeeping: the failure to account properly for the eventual cost of decommissioning and waste disposal at its sites. Mr. Desautels recently estimated that cost at $665-million, a guess environmentalists consider low.

"This industry has been an albatross around the neck of the Canadian taxpayer for decades," New Democratic MP Dennis Gruending said. "If AECL were a private company, it would have gone out of business years ago."

The federal government first estimated the cost of decommissioning Building 220 at $20-million, but documents obtained from Transport Canada under the Access to Information Act show the price tag has doubled.

"In 1994, the estimated cost for decommissioning was $20-million, excluding cost for storing, processing and disposing of the resultant wastes. International experience indicates that including these costs would approximately double the estimate to $40-million," reads the document, dated in August of last year.

Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. started collecting plutonium in 1950 and stopped in 1957. At one time, AECL used Building 220 to separate plutonium from irradiated fuel produced at Chalk River's NRX reactor.

The reactor, which has been mothballed for decades, has yet to be decommissioned. AECL refuses to divulge price estimates for decommissioning that or any other building.

"It's always been in the interest of the nuclear industry to keep the liabilities quiet, because once the liabilities get out, all hell breaks loose," said Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. "Any liabilities that occur of this nature are really the taxpayers'. It's really part of the national debt, but it's not recorded as such."

The revelation of the cost of cleaning up one building comes just days after Ottawa announced that a shipment of MOX fuel, which contains 4.5 per cent plutonium, had been safely received at Chalk River after being flown from Moscow. The mixed-oxide fuel combines plutonium oxide from old nuclear warheads with uranium oxide. Despite widespread opposition, the government plans to conduct tests on whether Canadian reactors can safely dispose of weapons-grade plutonium from the United States and Russia.

The documents also show that plans to decommission Building 220 were developed as far back as 1994-95, four years before the workers were contaminated, but that they were not implemented.

"The detailed plan was provided to the [Atomic Energy Control Board] for comment and not intended for approval or immediate action," it reads.

AECL spokesman David Lisle said the Crown corporation hasn't decided when decommissioning Building 220 might begin. He said the $40-million price is only a preliminary estimate and the final budget and plan won't be set for two or three more years.