Activists challenge format

Two sides, both bitterly divided, showed up Saturday for a visit by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to Port Hope .

The CNSC held two public consultation sessions at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #30 hall on Toronto Road. The morning session drew about 60 residents – the afternoon close to the same. An assessment of possible environmental effects caused by Cameco’s proposal to produce slightly enriched uranium (SEU) was to be discussed, but discussion strayed beyond the issue at hand during the afternoon session.

Residents in attendance, or at least those who are part of concerned citizen groups Families Against Radiation Exposure (FARE), Port Hope Nuclear Environmental Watchdogs and the Community Health Concerns Committee, were unhappy with the discussion format laid out by the commission.

Early in the second session these people began to protest the discussion table format, which allowed people to sit down and have a round table discussion with CNSC staff members who specialize in specific fields.

The citizens were calling for an open-mike discussion to be done before the round table sessions began. Event moderator, Jaquie Dale, who is independent from the commission, struggled to keep an increasingly unruly crowd under control.

Tempers flared from both commission members and residents.

FARE president John Miller called for a show of hands from the participants to support the format they called for.

Ms. Dale, looking somewhat defeated, proposed an open-mike discussion to take place at the same time as the round table sessions. Participants could not use a microphone, but they were able to speak in an open format.

But only the CNSC staff members who manned unoccupied tables could take part in the discussions.

CNSC staff were the targets of numerous accusations, including charges of protecting the nuclear industry and not people and avoiding giving answers to questions from concerned citizens.

One woman, who no longer lives in Port Hope, blamed her brain cancer on radioactive waste strewn across the town.

“We need slightly enriched uranium in this town like I need the cancerous hole in my brain,” she said.

Port Hope resident and former Zircatec Precision Industries employee Dan Rudka claimed the CNSC was doing nothing to protect people like him. Mr. Rudka suffers from two lung diseases. He blames his five-year tenure at Zircatec in the early 1990’s as the cause. CNSC has not listened to his concerns, Mr. Rudka said.

“My story … how many times do we have to hear it?” he asked CNSC staff.

Other issues brought forth by the residents include:

– lack of buffer zone around the plant;

– the need for a study for cumulative effects of emissions from Cameco;

– a need for health studies conducted in Port Hope;

– need for a full-panel review conducted by objective panel members.

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