Tag Archives: emergency planning

False Alarm!

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On Sunday, January 12, (2020) a nuclear “false alarm” cell phone notification was sent out to … millions? … of Ontarians. This is what those who received the alert saw on their cell phones just before 7:30 am.

So began the (mis)adventure. Phone calls, texts, emails – considerable anxiety for those who live close to the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (and frankly, for those of us who “know” nukes, also throughout Durham Region, Toronto/the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) & other more far-flung locations).

Note: It was not just people in the 10K zone who got this alert. It went far & wide across the province. Some of us who live within spitting distance of PNGS (Pickering Nuclear Generating Station) got no alert at all.

A couple hours later, a 2nd alert:

Here is a list of some news items seen in the past few days, with the oldest up top – including an official apology from the government agency in charge of Ontario’s nuclear emergency planning.

“Official” & Media & NGO Items about the False Alarm

Jan. 12/20. Ontario apologizes after alert about Pickering nuclear plant sent by mistake <CTV News>

Jan. 12/20. Statement from the Solicitor General <Provincial gov’t agency that oversees nuke emerg. planning>

Jan. 12/20. Ontario Alert Warned of a Nuclear ‘Emergency,’ Then Backed Down <New York Times>

Jan 12, 20. ‘We want answers:’ Pickering mayor calls for investigation into nuclear emergency alert sent in error. Alert was issued during a routine training exercise <Pickering News Advertiser>

Jan. 12/20. Pickering Nuclear Emergency – Next time it could be real <Ontario Clean Air Alliance>

Jan. 13/20. Province apologizes for Pickering nuclear plant false alarm, says cellphone alert was ‘human error’ during training A cellphone alert sparked anger and calls for answers after it led to a stressful Sunday morning for residents used to the living close to the plant. <Hamilton Spectator>

Jan. 13/20. Doug Ford quietly extends life of controversial 49-year-old Pickering nuclear plant <Toronto Star> Hmmmm. Interesting timing… An opinion on this here.

Jan. 13/20. Human Error: What we know (and don’t) about the Pickering nuclear alert blunder Solicitor general says there will be an investigation <Pickering News Advertiser>

Jan. 13?/20. False nuclear plant warning in emergency alert system likely a routine test gone wrong, government says <Globe & Mail>

Jan. 14/20. How to prepare for a nuclear emergency <Clarington This Week, Durham Region.com>

Jan. 14/20. Fear of nuclear power can be more deadly than nuclear accidents themselves <Opinion – Toronto Star>

Jan. 14/20. We have good reasons to be alarmed about nuclear reactors <Toronto Star>

Jan. 14/20. Jonathan Kay: The Sunday alert’s real lesson — Canada’s nuclear reactors are safe <National Post>

Jan. 14/20. People close to meltdown over possible Pickering nuclear emergency <Pickering News Advertiser>

Jan. 15/20. False Alarm Draws Attention to Delayed Pickering Nuclear Shutdown, Triggers Surging Demand for Emergency Iodide Pills <The Energy Mix>

Jan. 15/20. Pickering nuclear alert underscores need for greater transparency <Lake Ontario Waterkeeper>

Jan. 15/20. Nuclear Hotseat podcast. Canada Nuclear False Alarm Freakout at Pickering Reactors – Angela Bischoff, Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Jan. 15/20. Our emergency alert system failed us Sunday and we need answers <Opinion – toronto.com>

Jan. 16/20. The fallout from a false nuclear alarm <Opinion – Durham Region.com>

Jan. 17/20. Fairlie and Simpson: Ontario should denuclearize its power generation <London Free Press>

Jan. 19/20. Pickering false alarm casts doubt on Toronto’s emergency plans <Toronto’s Now Magazine>

*** Claims of Pickering being “safe”?? Well. Hmmmmm. Take a look at this list of incidents/accidents. Pickering Nuclear – Unsafe At Any Speed.

2015 DNA Posting Explains Why Ontario’s Nuclear Emergency Plans Are Not “Robust”

It can’t happen here! / Severe Accident Study? / It’s the planning basis, Stupid!

Short form?

The brain trust at Queen’s Park decided decades ago on the “planning basis” for nuclear emergency plans. Just assume that only a minor accident, with a small release of radioactivity, would occur. Never mind planning for a disastrous accident like the ones in Chernobyl (April 1986) and later, Japan (March 2011).

After all, it’s so unlikely!

Masses of NGO efforts went into trying to change this over the years. Masses of intelligent interventions at successive public licensing “hearings” before Canada’s nuclear “regulator,” the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

Meetings with politicians & bureaucrats. Presentations & submissions & meetings & surveys galore.

All to no avail. So there is no detailed planning (e.g. evacuation plans, or, btw, promised work from the Province on alternative drinking water sources if Lake Ontario becomes a dump for fallout) for a major accident.

Point to ponder:

Can you really evacuate an area with such a huge population?? Well – realistically, no.

Evacuations after Severe Nuclear Accidents.

Bottom line: As a staffer from OFMEM (the Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management, formerly in the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, now the Solicitor General) said at an October 2016 public meeting hosted by OPG (Ontario Power Generation) in Pickering:

“We have always been very upfront about the fact that it’s up to the public to be prepared for emergencies.”

Translation?

In the event of a major nuclear accident in Pickering, with millions of people in the surrounding area & Lake Ontario (drinking water source for millions) inevitably sucking up the radioactivity being spewed … sadly,

#WeAreOnOurOwn

Irony? While the nuclear industry’s favourite word is “robust,” emergency plans are NOT robust. Not even the teeniest, tiniest, slightest bit robust.

KI Pills – Truth or Lies?

A 2015 posting on this site that lays out quite a bit of truth (some of it a little inconvenient) about KI pills.

You see, the only thing that’s really changed over the decades (as far as nuclear emergency planning is concerned) is that nuclear, federal & provincial “authorities” have decreed that they will now distribute KI pills to us. This came only as a result of pressure from NGOs on the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (DNA itself was recommending KI pre-distribution back in the late 90s, as this 1997 letter to the provincial government indicates). The posting lays out some important things about KI pills, & while it was written in 2015, it’s still very relevant.

As is this very informative brochure from the American Thyroid Association, which states:

“HOW SHOULD KI BE INCORPORATED INTO AN OVERALL EMERGENCY PLAN? KI is an adjunct to other critical responses. These are evacuation or, if not recommended or not possible, sheltering (staying in an unventilated room with the doors and windows closed), and avoiding contaminated food, milk, and water. KI should not take the place of these and any other protective measures.”

An adjunct. NOT a plan.

But go ahead & order your pills! As the brochure informs us, their use in Poland prevented thyroid cancers among children there. And the cancers that developed among the children in Ukraine, Belarus & Russia, were aggressive ones. And of course, children in Japan now have thyroid cancer also.

Gentle reader, ask yourself this: Why, when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred 34 years ago (as of April 26, 2020), it took the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission & OPG & our health “authorities” 29 years to start distributing KI pills?

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Toshimitsu Homma of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency stated in April 2013 at an international conference on Emergency Management (held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) that the most important lesson of Fukushima was that before the accident, “There was an implicit assumption that such a severe accident could not happen and thus insufficient attention was paid to such an accident by authorities.”

“…What part of Fukushima don’t you understand? If you don’t make the modifications [re: safety & emergency planning] you run the risk of destroying the fabric of a country. It happened at Chernobyl, and it’s happening right now in Japan…” – Arnie Gundersen in a (4-minute) March 27/14 interview, discussing the 3rd anniversary of Fukushima accident (March 11/11)

“The Commission has verified that there was a lag in upgrading nuclear emergency preparedness and complex disaster countermeasures, and attributes this to regulators’ negative attitudes toward revising and improving existing emergency plans.” – from The official report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (pg. 19)

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Boxer Mike Tyson

*** These quotes & many other shocking & relevant ones can be found here, on this site.

Nuclear Emergency Planning: Did You Know?

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** On March 11, 2011 a major nuclear accident took place in Fukushima, Japan. 146,000 people were told to evacuate in a 20-kilometre radius around the plant. 270,00 people remain away from their homes in northeast Japan since the tsunami/earthquake/nuclear disaster. A study carried out by the Japanese Parliament concluded in 2012 that the cause of the nuclear accident was “man-made” and cited collusion between the nuclear regulator and TEPCO.
In April 2013, Toshimitsu Homma of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency stated at an international conference on Emergency Management held in Ottawa that the most important lesson of Fukushima was that before the accident, “There was an implicit assumption that such a severe accident could not happen and thus insufficient attention was paid to such an accident by authorities.”

The Nuclear Emergency Scene in Durham Region

1. A very large number of agencies are involved in nuclear emergency planning. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the (federal) Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) have responsibilities for on-site emergency response, while off-site emergency planning is the responsibility of the Province of Ontario. Within Durham Region, the Durham Emergency Management Office (DEMO) is responsible for implementing provincial plans. With the dauntingly large number of federal, provincial, regional and municipal agencies involved, there is a very real risk of bureaucratic mix-ups in the event of a major accident. Such mix-ups occurred both in Ukraine following the Chernobyl accident, and in Japan following the Fukushima accident.

2. Sufficiently detailed plans for a serious nuclear emergency do not currently exist. Plans currently in place under the PNERP (Provincial Nuclear Emergency Response Plan), the TNERP (Toronto Nuclear Emergency Response Plan) & the DRNERP (Durham Region NERP) are for a smaller accident, not for a Chernobyl or Fukushima-style major accident or very large radioactive release. The emergency exercise carried out at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in May 2014 involved more than 50 agencies – but no members of the public – and was not planned around the possibility of a major accident.

3. The Ontario and federal governments have failed to review & revise the Province’s nuclear emergency plans to address accidents involving large radiation releases since the Fukushima nuclear disaster took place in March 2011.

4. Most citizens are ill-prepared to respond to a serious nuclear emergency – even those who live close to one of Durham’s two large nuclear generating stations. Current measures requiring personal emergency preparedness and/or possible evacuation are neither well-detailed nor widely understood … nor widely communicated. For example, most citizens are not aware that they are responsible for making their own evacuation arrangements in the event of an emergency (even if they don’t own a vehicle), what means of transportation to use if they don’t own a car, or how to effect family reunifications. (See article here.)

5. “Sheltering in place” (i.e., staying where you are when you are notified of a nuclear accident) may be an early instruction, but in the case of an actual release of radionuclides from a nuclear power plant, most ordinary houses will not provide adequate protection from all exposures, again stressing the need for effective evacuation planning. Evacuation plans and routes and locations of evacuation centres are not familiar or known to people in Durham Region or the Greater Toronto Area in general, who might have to evacuate quickly in the event of a serious nuclear accident at Pickering or Darlington.

6. The Province of Ontario determines the “zones” of notification in which public alerting after an accident & the distribution of potassium iodide pills (see below), must be carried out.  These zones are both arbitrary and inadequate, and in no way reflect the distances over which radiation may in actuality travel, or where dangerous hot particles may ultimately land.

7. Potassium iodide pills (known as KI pills) must be taken as soon as possible after a major radioactive release in order to prevent the thyroid gland from absorbing radioactive iodine, possibly later resulting in thyroid cancer. This is an important action to reduce the risk of damage to the thyroid gland, but is only effective if taken at the right time (i.e., just before or at the very beginning of a radioactive release). It must be noted that KI does not prevent the absorption of a host of other radioactive isotopes that could be released to the air and unwittingly breathed in, and so, as already outlined, effective evacuation is also key.

8. Regulations about the distribution of KI pills are currently under federal review in Canada. In some countries (e.g. France and Switzerland) they are pre-distributed to all households within 10-50 km of a nuclear plant. The CNSC is recommending that regulations around KI pills be changed, and that KI be pre-distributed to all citizens within the 10-kilometre zone of any major nuclear facility. Ontario’s provincial government (which is in charge of Ontario’s off-site nuclear emergency plans) does not appear to be in support of this initiative. (See recent Toronto Star article here.)

9. On June 17th & 25th [2014] , Durham Nuclear Awareness made presentations & asked members of Durham’s Regional Council to advocate on behalf of its citizens for world-class nuclear emergency plans, and to ask the provincial government to conduct transparent public consultations with Durham Region and its citizens on revisions to the province’s nuclear emergency plans. (The text of our June 25th powerpoint presentation can be found here.)

References: