Workers given OK to return to lab

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This article was published 06/12/2023 (728 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s nuclear watchdog will permit some workers to return to a former Manitoba research facility to complete essential maintenance, eight months after operations were halted due to safety concerns.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission ordered Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to complete an eight-phase restart plan and review of all operations at the former Whiteshell Laboratories, after an internal safety audit highlighted deficiencies with the site’s fire response plan.

The Pinawa lab site, roughly 110 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, is in the process of being decommissioned and is home to two inactive nuclear reactors.

CNL is contracted to oversee the facilities, which have remained in a “safe shutdown” state since April 27, pending federal approval to resume operations.

In the interim, numerous community members have contacted the Free Press with allegations of reckless spending, poor record keeping and overall mismanagement from the facility’s highest levels.

“The work that is ongoing is not sincere,” said a former employee, who spoke under condition of anonymity. “I don’t know that there is a huge safety risk, but my concern, and what I believe, is essentially there is a pretty gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.”

The former employee said they worked for the facility for several years in a variety of roles, including assessing the viability of environmental remediation and helping with decontamination and demolition of on-site buildings.

The source said they resigned around the time of the stop-work order, alleging the inability to maintain “professional morals or ethics.”

“There’s been a lot of money spent at that facility and there has been very little progress with regard to actual environmental cleanup or further understanding the actual size and scope of what the cleanup is going to need to accommodate future land use,” the source said.

“I came in there thinking it was a highly regulated industry that placed more emphasis on safeguards, safety and things of that nature. I was surprised.”

In the months since the operational halt, employees at the facility have been collecting full salaries, with little to no work being done on site, the former employee alleged.

CNL did not respond to request for comment regarding the estimated financial cost of the shutdown.

Financial documents show the number could possibly be measured in the hundreds of thousands.

The collective agreement between Whiteshell employees and the federal government outlines a sliding pay scale for engineers and scientists, with those at the lowest end earning $65,000 and those at the highest earning $180,400, annually.

The document does not account for casual workers or employees at the organizational level of branch manager or above.

According to an event report, submitted to the safety commission in June, all employees at the facility have been impacted by the operational halt, with many transitioning to “supporting Whiteshell Laboratories remotely.”

The document does not detail which tasks at the site can be performed remotely.

CNL’s financial statements show the government paid the contractor roughly $1.2 billion in 2022 to oversee operations across Canada, including at six nuclear sites and one northern transport route.

The budget is comprised of taxpayer funds.

The return of essential workers marks the fifth phase in the Whiteshell restart plan and another step toward a full recommencement of local activities, but how long that could take remains unclear.

“As part of this phased process, CNL has completed a readiness review and CNSC staff have accepted the conclusions of the review, which permits staff to return to site to perform essential maintenance only,” the commission said in a statement Monday.

“It does not permit further decommissioning work. A further readiness review must be completed by CNL and accepted by CNSC staff prior to work at Whiteshell moving to further phases.”

Pinawa Mayor Blair Skinner said he is aware of the development and is pleased with the CNSC intervention and subsequent response from CNL.

“Fortunately, the fact that they were out of compliance didn’t result in any issues and that’s the whole point of having (an oversight) system, is to make sure that all the requirements are met by the licensee to minimize any impact on the community or employees at the site,” Skinner said by phone Tuesday.

“They are still the largest employer in the area. They employ 300 people, so it is still a major component of our community and in the region.”

During a June 28 hearing with the CNSC, CNL president Joe McBrearty admitted the site has suffered from inadequate oversight from management, poor decision making, inadequate training protocols and an ineffective organizational structure since at least 2020.

Last month, the commission fined CNL $14,860 for deficient record keeping.

Whiteshell Laboratories was established in 1963, and closed in 1998, with decommissioning activities officially beginning in the early 2000s.

In addition to the reactors, the 11,000-acre site hosts several research and support facilities and a waste management area containing low-, intermediate- and high-level radioactive waste.

In 2016, CNL submitted a proposal to the federal government asking it to approve an in situ (leaving in place) decommissioning approach. The plan involves removing all above-ground structures and entombing the former reactors in concrete.

“The information that was used to support these proposals was essentially bunk information that was collected in the ’90s and early 2000s. The information was useless for us to actually develop a $40-million in situ proposal,” the former employee said.

“If it were actually required to meet today’s sniff test, it would never pass.”

The CNSC has not approved the action, and is awaiting the results of an environmental assessment.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca