Environmental protection
The environmental protection safety and control area covers programs that identify, control and monitor all releases of radioactive and hazardous substances and effects on the environment and members of the public from facilities or as the result of licensed activities.
Environmental protection for nuclear facilities and activities is done in accordance with the Nuclear Safety and Control Act and the regulations made under it. This legislation includes provisions to ensure that licensees are meeting the CNSC’s mandate to protect the environment and the health, safety and security of persons. The CNSC requires the environmental effects of all nuclear facilities or activities to be considered and evaluated when licensing decisions are made.
The CNSC recently implemented its Independent Environmental Monitoring Program (IEMP). The IEMP complements existing and ongoing compliance activities to verify that the public and environment around CNSC-regulated nuclear facilities are not adversely affected by releases to the environment. This verification is achieved through independent sampling and analysis by the CNSC.
In this category, you will find research and technical information related to the following specific areas: effluent and emissions control (releases), environmental management system, assessment and monitoring, protection of the public, and environmental risk assessment.
Research and support program
- R760.1 Review of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s Regulatory Framework for Readiness to Regulate Artificial Intelligence
- RSP-722.1, Independent Expert Review of Bruce Power Mitigation Measures Study
- R719.2 Federal Low Dose Radiation Research Program - An international survey to advance the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP): a framework for radiation research
- RSP-718.2, Environmental Chemistry of Wild Harvested Berries: Depositional and Uptake Chemistry and Human Health Assessment - Laboratory Analysis
- RSP-692.1, Establishing Environmental Recovery Baselines at the Elliot Lake Historical Mine Sites
- RSP-613.6, Safety Assessment Code Development and Application
- RSP-0300, Effects of chronic exposure to alpha-emitting radionuclides on health and reproductive fitness of biota
- RSP-0262, Feasibility of reference condition approach for uranium mines
- RSP-0261, Technical review cost-benefit analysis: Fish impingement and entrainment reduction: Pickering Nuclear Generating Station
- RSP-0257, Environmental fate of tritium in soil and vegetation
- RSP-0256, Tritium Analysis of Soils and Vegetation from Pembroke, Russell, Golden Lake, Hay River
- RSP-0247, Investigation of the environmental fate of tritium in the atmosphere
- RSP-0243, Review of AREVA surface gamma radiation survey of disturbed areas at Cluff Lake
- RSP-0204, Uranium in effluent treatment process
- RSP-0202, Review of thermal mitigation technologies for nuclear generating stations
- RSP-0201, Statistical regression model for setting site-specific selenium water quality objectives
- RSP-0183, Background radionuclide concentrations in major environmental compartments of natural terrestrial ecosystems
- RSP-0180, The toxicity investigation of uranium to aquatic organisms
- RSP-0179A, Technologies for mitigating tritium releases to the environment
- RSP-0179B, Good work practice for effective tritium management
- RSP-0175, Uranium concentrations in Port Hope soils and vegetation and toxicological effect on soil organisms
- RSP-0146, 129I in the environment: Phase II – the Fate of atmospheric 129I in a shallow sand aquifer system at Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada
Technical papers and abstracts
- Uranium Concentrations in Soil and Vegetation near Uranium Processing Facility
- Technical and Scientific Support Organization Forum – Supporting the Development of Technical and Scientific Capacities in Member States
- Assessment of Risks to Human Health and the Environment From Hazardous Substances in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities in Canada
- Gas Generation from Organic waste over a 7 years period: implication for the management or radioactive waste
- Regulatory Oversight of New Accelerator Technologies
- Characterization of radionuclides in uranium mine tailings with synchrotron-based hard X-ray microprobe techniques
- Tritium – Competitive Reaction in Cyclotrons F-18 Production – Regulatory Implications
- Role of tritiated hydrogen in formation of HTO and OBT in soil and vegetation in vicinity of a tritium processing facility
- Role of soil-to-leaf tritium transfer in controlling leaf tritium dynamics: Comparison of experimental garden and tritium-transfer model results
- In situ measurements of tritium evapotranspiration (3H-ET) flux over grass and soil using the gradient and eddy covariance experimental methods and the FAO-56 model
- Canadian inter-laboratory organically bound tritium (OBT) analysis exercise
- Tritium dynamics in soils and plants at a tritium processing facility in Canada
- Levels of tritium in soils and vegetation near Canadian nuclear facilities releasing tritium to the atmosphere: implications for environmental models
- Review of the knowledge available to date on the effects of tritium exposure on health and the environment in Canada – a tool to guide regulatory compliance monitoring
- Transfers studies in terrestrial ecosystems
- Uranium toxicity to fish
- Evidence of childrens vulnerability to radiation in the context of radiological/nuclear events and considerations for emergency response
Publications
Health studies
- Radiation and incidence of cancer around Ontario nuclear power plants From 1990 to 2008 (The RADICON Study)
- Evidence of childrens vulnerability to radiation in the context of radiological/nuclear events and considerations for emergency response
- Dosimetry service providers
- Polonium-210
- Radon
- The KIKK study explained
- Environmental fate of tritium in soil and vegetation
- Tritium Fact Sheet
- Frequently asked questions: Tritium
- Standards and guidelines for tritium in drinking water (INFO-0766)
- Introduction to radiation
- Investigation of the environmental fate of tritium in the atmosphere
- Basic epidemiology concepts
- Introduction to dosimetry
- Nuclear and radiation glossary
- Setting radiation requirements on the basis of sound science: The role of epidemiology
- Tritium releases and dose consequences in Canada in 2006
- Evaluation of facilities handling tritium
- Tritium activity in garden produce from Pembroke in 2007 and dose to the public
- Health effects, dosimetry and radiological protection of tritium
- Tritium studies project synthesis report
- An ecological study of cancer incidence in Port Hope, Ontario from 1992 to 2007
- Understanding health studies and risk assessments conducted in the Port Hope community from the 1950s to the present
- Use of a weight of evidence approach to determine the likelihood of adverse effects on human health from the presence of uranium facilities in Port Hope, Ontario
Research from third-party sources
- Population dynamics and critical habitat of woodland caribou in the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield
- Genetic analysis of round whitefish (Prosopium cylindraceum) stock structure in Lake Ontario
- Ontario’s Chief Drinking Water Inspector Annual Report 2015-2016
- Eastern Athabasca Regional Monitoring Program 2014/2015 Community Report
- Depleted uranium and Canadian veterans: A review of potential exposure and health effects (January 2013)
- The hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis in infants and children: Protection from radioiodines
- Distributing KI pills to minimize thyroid radiation exposure in case of a nuclear accident in France
- Managing terrorism or accidental nuclear errors, preparing for Iodine-131 emergencies: A comprehensive review
- Potassium iodide for thyroid blockade in a reactor accident: administrative policies that govern its use
- Leukaemia in young children in the vicinity of British nuclear power plants: a case–control study
- Managing environmental and health impacts of uranium mining
- Estimating cancer risk in relation to tritium exposure from routine operation of a nuclear-generating station in Pickering, Ontario
- Comparison of recent UNSCEAR and WHO reports
- UNSCEAR 2013 report
- WHO health risk assessment
- WHO preliminary estimate of radiation doses
- Evaluation of radiation doses and associated risk from the Fukushima nuclear accident to marine biota and human consumers of seafood
- Selected quotes from international radiation protection specialists
- National Dose Registry
- Northern Saskatchewan health indictors report 2011
Videos
- Radiation and health
- Ask an Expert : How are children protected after a nuclear accident?
- Ask an Expert : After a nuclear accident like Fukushima, why aren't all members of the public monitored continuously?
- Ask an Expert : Do dried fruit contain more radioactivity than fresh fruit?
- Ask an Expert : Is it safe to eat rice, produce and fish imported from Japan?
- Post-Fukushima improvements to nuclear power plants
- Medical uses of nuclear technologies
- Industrial uses of nuclear technologies
- Independent Environmental Monitoring Program
- Operation Morning Light
Videos from third-party source
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