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The Huron Expositor, 1983-09-14, Page 17What's ;t TV Bruce Nuclear Power Development, (BNPD) often called Douglas Point afterthe fir967, is a him-technolo actor completede ere percnhed the Lake high-technology. city, Huron shore in the middle of an agricultural Stea. It's between Kincardine and Port High! and'the entrance is just off Hwy. #4. BNPD's 7200 employees, down from a peak of nearly 9,000 in the late '70s have their own sports teams, social events, radio troadcasts, stop smoking classes and a hriving once -a -month newspaper with plenty of classified ads. As well as the small original Douglas Point reactor', owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited but operated by Ontario Hydro, BNPD has four atomic reactors at generating station A. 'About 1973, based on a demand for energy that had been rising steady since WW 2, -Ontario Hydro decided to build Bruce B with four reactors and three more heavy water plants. Then the demand for electricity, fell off. It takes 12 years to build a generating "station like Bruce A, Don White, commun- ity relations director says. "We were heading along in sort of an unchecked manner, trying to meet the demand for electricity and' the' wheels fell off." At BNPD the downturn in demand meant :heavy water plant C was cancelled and D mothballed when construction was about half finished. Construction of the four reactors in generating station B has .continued, and the first is scheduled to operate next year. A ti• uclet�r there? The round vaccuum buildings behind the generatin? stations Mr, White calls "the ultimate in a safety valve," Unique to Canadian nuclear plants, a vaccuum build- ing is designed to relieve pressure inside a reactor and insure containment of radio- activity if there is a problem. "It's a building we don't ever think we'll use, but it's there." Steam, a byproduct from the reactors. gives Hydro and many who live in the area hope for a new boom at BNPD. The utility wants to market steam energy, "to bring industry to the energy" iepstead of the other way around, Mr. White ays. As well the BNPD site has a new S15 million training centre, office, information and administration centres and a radio- active waste storage site. Used reactor fuel is stored in under -water bays right in the reactor buildings, until a permanent and socially acceptable bite is found for radioactive wastes. But rags, mops, and various components froqm,eeadioactive zones are stored in this fenceirdrea, underground in concrete. The BNPD site serves all Ontario Hydro nuclear plants. These low level wastes are trucked in from Pickering in 45 gallon sealed drums. For a more detailed look at what's at the Bruce, and a discussion of its safety features, write to BNPD Information office at Box 1000, Tiverton. A Visitors' Centre is open daily from 10 til 5 until early September. Guided bus tours run every hour. A group visit may be ,arranged by 'calling the office at 368-7031, ext. 3011. Bruce Nuclear Power Development (BN D) on Lake Huron's shore. Generating station B, now under construction, Is In the,foreg+und. The small round building above, closest to the lake, Is the original Douglas Pointireactor which had the most recent heavy water leaks. Behind it and to the right are the heavy water plants. Generating station A, with Its four reactors, is at the rear of the photo. the Duron The radioactive waste disposal site at BNPD. The site serves all Ontario Hydro's nuclear planta and Is used for mops, rags and other equipment from radioactive zones. xpositor SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1983 — 2ND SECTION — 12 PAGES Hydro plans for accidents it hopes won't happen Operators for Ontario Hydro's nuclear plants will be trained In this building, now under construction at BNPD. BY SUSAN WHITE Relatively small amounts of radioactive tritium have been released into two Ontario lakes, following heavy water leaks at nuclear plants at Douglas Point and Pickering. Ontario Hydro officials say the releases pose no hazard to the communities near the plants. At Douglas Point, the oldest and original reactor at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development, 120 Kms north of Seaforth 1,700 litres of the heavy water coolant were released into Lake Huron Labor Day weekend, while about 1,000 litres from Pickering entered Lake Ontario in August. The leak didn't much worry Pickering area residents, said a municipal councillor on CBC radio shortly after the first incident there. Caused by tae rupture of a pressure tube in a fuel channel, it was the first such accident in 100 reactor -years of operation. Ontario Hydro has his trust and is always open and honest about its problems, the Pickering councillor said. Much of public reaction from neighbours of the Bruce development is similar. While there's no hard and fast rule about how far away a radioactive leak would travel, Ontario Hydro says radioactivity in the atmosphere. not water (following a highly improbable core meltdown for example) would be reduced by a factor of 10 two miles away and by a factor of 100 at a 10 mile distance. Nine municipalities quite near the giant Bruce Nuclear Power Development get annual community impact grants to cushion the social and other effects of the utility. And the reeve of Bruce Township, where BNPD sits, is chairman of a municipal control group, which has an emergency plan ready for any major incidents that might occur. There's very little anti-nuclear feeling in Grey and Bruce counties, says Don White, BNPD's community relations chief. People in the immediate area are not that all excited about the reactors in their midst and "have gotten used to us." In Feb., 1981 the municipal control group helped co-ordinate an emergency planning exercise, similar to the one at Pickering this May. Other municipalities, the police and hospitals were also involved. The site, the county and the province have emergency plans that dovetail, 1, Don White CUA TION explains. NONo one was evacuated during the mock disaster exercise then, and the public wasn't directly involved with the Pickering exercise either. Evacuation, however was part of an emergency exercise at Point LePreau in New vote o emeeby Christmas the People would islature is be able to ected to Brunswick. These exercises never cause panic in the use the pills a lot faster they were area, he says. "Keeping people informed has distributed before an aecident, says Ken helped to allay that reaction." Who does Reeves, the provincial official who was in what if there's an emergency is carefully laid charge one the cost about $4ergen emergencyexercise. some out in two loose leaf binders on a shelf in his oBut, hens in that areabothink disaster and sane office. Neighbours, Don White says, "accept p' BNPD for what it is and have a reasonable pills could scare people away from Pickering. trust in the people who rune and operate it." TELL ALL "Why would we live here, if we really had However Ken Reeves believes the province concerns about radioactive Teaks?" BNPD hasn't paid enough attention to the public workers, currently 7,200 of them live in the eeducation is that it's besart of t to emergency planning. ntell it area and are part of the community too. Only straight. h people swtll understand all what tot 2.88 per cent come from'Huron County; g P P nearly 50 per cent live in nearby Kincardine do." ane rorf algin. About hail work on Don White at BNPD community relations construction and half on operations. BNPD's agrees but "how far do you go in preparing $4.3 million per week payroll will drop the public?" he asks. After -the radiation dramatically when construction is finished. leaks at Three Mile Island inthe WS in 1979, he noticed an increased interest in BNPD and some pressure from the press. "We've never been reluctant to show people what we've got. What we didn't do is report on every major occurrence." Since Three Mile Island the community relations officers ---the department staff of seven handled 50,000 visitors last year ---"relig- iously get out the word on all the occurrences. " Now Mr. White has heard backlash from some media that they are getting too much information. As he outlines the safety precautions in design, operations and training at the BNPD, the back-ups, the testing and re -testing that goes on constantly. Don White emphasizes that the chance of a major radiation release is "remote." Since Three Mile Island too, the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) the govern- ment organization that serves as the public's The control room at generating station B. A similar room has been bullt for training In the new St ft million training centre. That drop starts next year. What could concern the communities right around BNPD more than a radioactive leak is the possibility of hydrogen sulphide gas (rotten egg gas) escaping from one of the two heavy water plants on the site. A safety pamphlet is delivered every year to neigh- bours within three miles telling them about that possibility. HORN WILL BLOW They'll hear a low pitched horn if the gas has leaked; neighbours are told, (that's only happened outside the plant itself once). And they should stay in the upper part of the house with all doors and windows shut. Information would immediately go out to all local media too. Ontario Hydro is one of the few nuclear utilities to issue the hydrogen sulphide warning. Media co-ordination is of course crucial to keep the public informed in the event of an accident. A seven page document sets out the watchdog and licences and polices nuclear steps to follow. The shift supervisor calls a plants has gotten tougher, and more public BNPD community relations officer if a about its actions, he says. AECB has an office "contingency" or problem affecting the on-site and has access to anything they want public happens. The community relations to sec. HOW SAFE? officer gets in touch with local radio and tv, asking then, to get the emergency informa- "How safe is safe?" Don White asks. And tion to the public. "He will usually ask that how much do you spend? If you want absolute his voice be tape recorded to avoid errors." safety in life. you'd never get on an airplane, WARNINGS BROADCAST he says. Traffic control, clearing beaches and parks May's two day exercise in Pickering or stay indoors warnings could all be showed two problems in emergency planning broadcast. Then the municipal control group there: The media will' have to be kept better sets up an emergency operations centre and informed and people have to be persuaded begins regular information releases to the not to go back home when the immediate press. They'll talk about the seriousness of emergency appears to be over. the emergency, the area it affects, evacua- People like Don White, firmly convinced tion, utility, school and health operations and their reactors are so safe that a major potasium iodate pills. atmospheric radiation leak will never happen These pills fight the effects of radioactivity. go through these exercises anyway. "What - by protecting the thyroid gland. They may be if" planning has priority with them aryd with part of a nuclear disaster kit the province the Ontario government which is responsible proposes for those who live near nuclear for the province -wide emergency disaster plants. The kit may be included in a provincial plan Editor's note: Ontario Hydro's nuclear generating plants have been much in the news this summer. The stories on this page are the result of a detailed tour of the site nearest Seaforth, the Bruce Nuclear Power Development, in May. 1