RE: On Assignment: "Nuclear Fallout" - Parts 1 & 2
I see that you decided to re-run Todd van der Heyden's old "On Your Side" show (Oct. 17, 2003) under the "On Assignment" banner, as the report named "Nuclear Fallout" - Parts 1 & 2 (May 15, 2005), without telling your viewers that its essentially a re-run of an old program (see http://www.cfcf.ca/cfcf/news/on_assignment&id=748#748 )
I guess the remark "how original," takes on a whole new meaning !
I notice also that you deleted the old web-posted "On Your Side" report, but I wonder -- would you happen to know whether the CRTC might have anything to say about this sort of blatant public deception ?
I must admit that this is way outside my field of expertise, but perhaps other media organizations might know ?
As for the content of the two program copies, I must say that I am particularly amused by your emphasis on the alleged "shrouded in mystery" aspect of Gentilly-2, reinforced with ridiculous claims of "notoriously secretive," "an industry that's remote and mysterious" and "very secret, very secret."
Where was Todd's crew during the "’événement portes ouvertes Sous le grand chapiteau" last summer at G-2, in which I and my colleagues, along with numerous other nuclear industry representatives, wellcomed hundreds of vistors ? ( see posting for 19 & 20 June 2004, at http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec_main.html ).
I saw some media types there, but no-one from CTV/CFCF.
Not surprisingly, your "new" report for "On Assignment" didn't mention anything about these types of public activities !
Regarding the report's claims that "That reactor is falling apart" and that "The plant only generates 3 per cent of all of Quebec's electricity," it is instructive to note that G-2's capacity factor so far this year has been 97.5%, while for all of 2004 it was 87.9%.
By comparison, the capacity factors of Quebec's large hydro dams are typically around 65%, and those of Quebec's windmill farms (76 wind mills at Cape-Chat and 57 at Matane) are well below 20%.
Germany, the country with by far the largest windmill energy park in the world, is reporting an overall average capacity factor of just under 15% for 2004.
Are all these hydro and wind plants "falling apart" ??
According to the recently published report of Quebec's Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), G-2 provides an important source of energy, by reason of its superior reliability and close proximity to the heart of Quebec's industrial base (see http://www.bape.gouv.qc.ca/sections/rapports/publications/bape207.pdf ) :
"...Gentilly-2 joue un rôle majeur dans la capacité de maintenir le service en cas de panne sur le réseau de transport d’Hydro-Québec parce qu’il est localisé près des forts points de consommation. […] La qualité du réseau et sa robustesse en cas de panne conditionnent aussi notre capacité à faire des échanges avec les réseaux voisins.
....la proximité de la centrale de Gentilly-2 des centres de consommation réduirait la nécessité de construire de longues lignes électriques de même que les effets environnementaux qui en découlent.
Enfin, la proximité de la centrale de Gentilly-2 du Parc industriel et portuaire de Bécancour rassurerait les industries en cas de panne électrique. Pour les gestionnaires du parc et le Centre local de développement de la MRC de Bécancour, la fermeture de la centrale signifierait la perte de cet avantage qui serait important pour le développement de ce parc.
De nombreux participants ont souligné la stabilité que la centrale de Gentilly-2 apporte au parc de production d’Hydro-Québec puisque son exploitation n’est pas dépendante des précipitations ou du vent :
Pour être stable et fiable, un système de production électrique doit être doté d’une importante composante de production de base qui fonctionne quelles que soient les conditions de vent, de soleil ou de pluie ; une composante qui puisse être mise en service ou hors service à volonté, sans dépendre de la coopération de Mère Nature. L’énergie nucléaire est une forme de production d’électricité de base à notre portée.
L’Association professionnelle des cadres de premier niveau d’Hydro-Québec voit dans la réfection de la centrale de Gentilly-2 « une police d’assurance énergétique face au développement de plus en plus difficile, éloigné et coûteux d’autres projets hydroélectriques »
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Unlike Todd's videotaped interview with G-2's Michel Rheaume outside, in the parking lot, I actually worked inside the reactor building not long ago.
And, unlike Todd and other people unfamiliar with the science, technology and the specific plant, we are obliged, as professionals, to know a little bit about radiation monitoring. The fact is that radiation levels outside the plant are very low -- basically natural background radiation.
I'd be very surprised if Michel Rheaume and Jim Blyth of the CNSC hadn't told you that -- no doubt your program editing is responsible for taking out any reference to radiation monitoring and low environmental readings..... particularly long-term monitoring by the CNSC.
Its also evident that you appear to take your viewing audience for a bunch of morons -- please explain what's the point of "any epidemiological studies" in the absence of significant radiation exposure ?
Why didn't Todd simply take a Geiger counter with him to the interview ? ....afraid it might spoil the wonderful scare story ?
In fact, the whole issue of excess cancers is bogus.
Specifically, a 2003 study by the Quebec Public Health Organization has shown that cancer rates within 20km radius of G-2 have been shown to be no higher than anywhere else in Quebec :
SANTÉ DES TRAVAILLEURS ET DE LA POPULATION
SANTÉ DE LA POPULATION
Une étude réalisée en 2003 par la Direction de la santé publique (DSP) de l’Agence de santé et de services sociaux de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec, a démontré que le taux de cancer n’est pas plus élevé dans la région entourant la centrale nucléaire de Gentilly-2 qu’ailleurs au Québec. Les informations portaient sur la santé de la population locale comprise dans un rayon de 20 km autour de la centrale.
Les dix cancers les plus fréquents dans la population ont été étudiés, en plus des deux cancers souvent examinés en lien avec la radioactivité (glande thyroïde et leucémie).
Les résultats des cancers étudiés dans la région ont été comparés avec ceux de la population du Québec et celle de l’ensemble du Canada.
Les spécialistes ont pu constater qu’il n’y avait pas de hausse significative des taux observés autour de la centrale de Gentilly-2 par rapport à la moyenne du Québec.
MISE À JOUR DE L’ÉTUDE SUR LES ANOMALIES CONGÉNITALES
En 2003, l’Agence de santé et de services sociaux a aussi mis à jour l’étude faite au début des années 1990 sur les malformations congénitales présumées dans la région de Bécancour. Le suivi ne montre pas de surplus de ces anomalies pour la période de 1992 à 2002, les taux étant comparables à ceux observés ailleurs au Canada.
La surveillance porte sur deux types d’anomalies (les fissures labiales et palatines et les atrésies et sténoses ano-rectales ou imperforations anales), lesquelles avaient été trouvées en excès à l’époque, mais n’avaient pas été mises en lien avec la centrale nucléaire de Gentilly-2 ou toute autre cause environnementale.
ÉTUDE INTERNATIONALE SUR LA SANTÉ DES TRAVAILLEURS DU NUCLÉAIRE
D’autre part, le Centre international de recherche sur le cancer de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé a mené une vaste étude sur la mortalité par le cancer chez les travailleurs de l’industrie nucléaire. Les données provenant de la centrale de Gentilly-2 ont été mises en commun avec celles de près de 600 000 travailleurs provenant de 15 pays.
Les résultats globaux de l’étude internationale seront connus vers le début de 2005, mais les résultats au Canada sont déjà disponibles.
L’étude canadienne a été réalisée sous l’égide de Santé Canada, auprès des 45 468 travailleurs enregistrés au fichier national des doses (83 % d’hommes, 17 % de femmes), de 1957 à 1994.
Les participants étaient Hydro-Québec, New-Brunswick Power, EACL, Ontario Power Generation (Ontario Hydro incluait à l’époque la centrale de Bruce). Les résultats indiquent au Canada qu’il y a moins de mortalités générales, moins de cancers et pas plus de leucémies parmi les cancers de travailleurs de l’industrie nucléaire que dans la population en général.DOSIMÉTRIE DES TRAVAILLEURS DE GENTILLY-2
À Gentilly-2, il n’y a eu aucun dépassement des limites de doses (de radioactivité) légales autorisées à l’organisme entier depuis le début de l’exploitation de G-2 en 1983. Ces limites sont établies à 5 000 millirem/an (50 mSv/an) ou 10 000 millirem (100 mSv) sur 5 ans pour les travailleurs du nucléaire.
RÉSULTAT DES GROSSESSES À GENTILLY-2
Quant aux données sanitaires portant sur les travailleuses enceintes de la centrale nucléaire de Gentilly-2, le centre de santé de la centrale a procédé à l’analyse de 133 grossesses survenues en cours d’emploi pendant les 20 dernières années. Cette analyse n’a pas montré d’excès de risques de malformations congénitales ou d’avortements spontanés.
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( see http://www.hydroquebec.com/production/classiques/nucleaire/gentilly_2/pdf/rapp_activite2004.pdf )
Now, about those two "C" grades from the CNSC ( http://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/safety/rc%5F05%5F03.cfm ).
First of all, Gentilly-2 also got a couple of A's (in Emergency Preparedness and in Safeguards) and five B's (including Nuclear Security and Environmental Performance).
In testimony before the commission on Sept. 12, 2002, inspectors from the commission said the plant is essentially being run safely and recommended its license be renewed for four years.
This was in fact done.
The "C" in radiation protection program implementation had to do with in-house monitoring (including worker radiation doses and other safety issues), NOT with the environment surrounding the plant ! (the other "C" is for "
organizational performance through the development and implementation of management programs, standards, processes and procedures," again unrelated to radiation in the surrounding environment ).The CNSC found that the plant's written procedures respected norms but they weren't being followed by a few individual employees. These are typically older, experienced, and therefore highly valued employees who the plant does not wish to fire for their harmless transgressions, affecting no-one but themselves.
The CNSC is also pushing for lower overall worker exposure rates.
But its clear that if such absurdly high standards as those used by the CNSC for the nuclear power industry were applied in other industries, like for example aviation (exposure to cosmic rays at high altitude), then all the airline crews and passengers would be required to wear lead blankets and the plane would probably never even get off the ground (again, please take your Geiger counter with you the next time you fly).
You could forget about any life-saving nuclear medicine procedures in hospitals.
There would probably be a ban on the importation of bananas and brazil nuts because of the natural radioactive potassium-40 isotope in them ("importing foreign nuclear waste").
Who knows where it would end.
It is plainly evident to anyone who has lived in Trois Riviéres (across the river from Gentilly-2) for any length of time that health problems in the area are more likely due to the filthy pulp & paper mills wafting their stinky pollution all over town & surrounding area.
Or it may be the many heavy industries located in the Bécancour industrial park next to and west of Gentilly-2, including chemical plants making or using nasty stuff like chlorine gas or anthraquinone (I worked in a couple of those too, briefly, for expansion projects...).
Finally, regarding Celine's deformed cat.
Its nothing new that the media love to link monsters and radiation, without any basis in fact.
For example, the November 2002 issue of National Geographic featured an article on nuclear legacy issues, including the contamination of land surrounding the former Soviet nuclear weapons testing site at Semipalatinsk. For good effect, included is a photo of monster fetuses preserved in glass bottles, as an illustration of the gruesome effects of nuclear radiation (or Ionizing Radiation -- IR).
Back in 1999, Prof. James C. Warf, who visited Semipalatinsk and was interviewed and quoted by the popular media on numerous occasions, sent me a message saying that "
I examined my writings about the cyclops fetus in Semipalatinsk, and found that I did not explicitly state that it resulted from IR, but the context was clear that this could easily be inferred. My writing was faulty in that instance, and I have changed it to show clearly that this case was probably not attributable to IR."Its instructive to consider instead examples like the Kunstkammer collection, which was assembled many, many years before the discovery of radioactivity and nuclear fission, bombs, and reactors :
http://www.kunstkamera.ru/english/exhibition/anatom.htm
ANATOMICAL RARITIES OF THE ST. PETERSBURG KUNSTKAMMER
<snip>
In 1718, Peter the Great issued his famous decree about the collecting of monsters in order to try to explain the nature of physical defects. In the decree, instructions were given on how to preserve specimens and deliver them to St. Petersburg. In the first ten years after the decree, monsters - living and dead - were regularly delivered to the Kunstkammer.
Abnormalities have always attracted attention. In the Talmud, a 2nd century AD text of ancient Rabbinic writings, there is a list of more than 100 types of birth defects. Among the specimens kept in the Kunstkammer are examples of different physical defects as well as examples of various degrees of twin accretion. These defects that people have observed since ancient times have perhaps given rise to the legends about the Cyclops, double-faced Janus, as well as harpies, water nymphs, and fauns.
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Equally significant is the absence of an unusual frequency of deformities in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as in a number of high natural background radiation areas around the world, including Kerala (India), Ramsar (Iran) and Guarapari (Brazil).
So, please, unless you can show me some statistically significant excess of deformities (and off-scale radiation readings), keep your scare stories to yourself.
Sincerely,
Jaro Franta, P.Eng.
Montréal, Québec
http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec_main.html
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CTV program transcript no longer posted :
http://www.cfcf.ca/news/news_archives/news_on_your_side_171003.html
On Your Side
NUCLEAR PLANT OCT 17, 2003
[NUCLEAR PLANT - ON YOUR SIDE]
[DATE=10/17/03]
THE GENTILLY NUCLEAR PLANT IS A MYSTERY TO MANY QUEBECERS. - SOME DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT EXISTS.
SINCE 9/11, THERE ARE ARMED GUARDS. THIS MACHINE SCANS FOR EXPLOSIVES. CONCRETE BLOCKS TO STOP TRAFFIC. NO VISITORS. CAMERAS EVERYWHERE.
BUT SECURITY MAY NOT BE THE PROBLEM. A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEARBY SAY SAFETY - "THEIR" SAFETY IS THE ISSUE.
[DIANE LANOUETTE/Local Resident]
"It’s my life we're talking about - it's the health of people so I wish the government would do something with it"
DIANE LANOUETTE RETIRED HERE FIVE YEARS AGO. 18 MONTHS LATER, SHE GOT CANCER - HER INTESTINES HAD TO BE REMOVED.
[DIANE]
"It’s like a nightmare, it's like a nightmare, because everything else is so beautiful in here sometimes I just don't look at it, but it's hard, it's there"
SHE LIVES WITHIN THE 5-MILE ZONE OF GENTILLY. SHE WORRIES THE PLANT IS MAKING PEOPLE SICK.
[DIANE]
I wish they would make some real serious study and that it's not the money that would decide whether it would close or it stay open. Is that what you think this is about? Money? Yes, that's what I think; I have no trust, at all, at all, at all.
[CELINE GERMAIN/Local Resident]
"Now I’m really scared, I had four tumors on the right side and I have another one growing on the left side"
A FEW MINUTES DOWN THE WATERFRONT - CELINE GERMAIN RUNS A HOME FOR THE ELDERLY.
[CELINE]
"According to Hydro-Quebec, they have no proof...well, they never took really the time to do a real study - well, if you want to do a real study you knock on everybody's door and you ask people if they had problems."
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE ANY DIRECT LINK. THE PLANT SAYS THEY HAVE STUDIES...STUDIES THAT SHOW NO HEALTH RISK.
[GILLES RHEAUME/Gentilly Nuclear Plant]
"This is no proof to have that relationship between the cancer and nuclear energy"
SO WE WENT TO OTTAWA - TO THE CANADIAN NUCLEAR SAFETY COMMISSION - WHICH OVERSEES THE GENTILLY PLANT.
THEY SAY THERE'S NO PROBLEM.
[JIM BLYTH/Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission]
"People who live near nuclear facilities tend to have the same health patterns as people who live further away"
BUT ACCORDING TO THIS DOCUMENT - ON A RECENT REPORT CARD - THE COMMISSION GAVE GENTILLY "UNSATISFACTORY" MARKS IN MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY. RADIATION PROTECTION AND PERFORMANCE ASSURANCE...GENTILLY GOT TWO "C" GRADES...
[BLYTH]
"C is: they're not meeting all our expectations."
[RHEAUME]
"We are in the process to have a continual improvement in our safety and security and for this reason, all the time we have something to do to improve. So what areas could you improve here? We have improvement to do in our environmental program."
BUT SOME RESIDENTS WANT INDEPENDENT STUDIES. TO THAT END, THEY’VE FORMED A GROUP CALLED "ZERO NUCLEAIRE" OR NUCLEAR ZERO.
[CELINE]
"Tumors! Tumors big or small, malignant or benign, this is what happened in Chernobyl in Russia - they had tumors from the plant."
CELINE ALSO SUSPECTS RADIATION IS TO BLAME FOR HER CAT'S CONDITION. IT WAS BORN WITH DEFORMED HIND LEGS.
[TODD ASKS BLYTH]
"Do you know of any epidemiological studies that were done around the Gentilly plant? I don't know...there may have been some done...but I'm not familiar with them."
THE COMMISSION "COULD" DO A STUDY OF IT'S OWN - BUT DIDN'T SEEM CONVINCED.
[TODD ASKS BLYTH]
"If there's the slightest chance that what they're saying is possibly true, shouldn't we err on the side of caution? Shouldn’t something be done? If there's the slightest chance...?
[BLYTH]
I don't know what the slightest chance...I think what I am saying...I know what I am saying, we are talking about people who are under a great deal of stress and are looking for answers and reasons for their stress"
[BLYTH]
"We all know that an unfortunate reality of life is: some people get sick"
STILL, THE COMMISSION SAYS "ZERO NUCLEAIRE" CAN TALK TO ITS STAFF WITH THEIR CONCERNS. EITHER WAY, THE GROUP IS MOBILIZING.
[DIANE]
"We’re not finished, we just started, we're not finished"
[CELINE]
"I wish I’m wrong, I hope I’m wrong, but show me I’m wrong"
FOR ON YOUR SIDE, I'M TODD VAN DER HEYDEN.
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