Chapter 8 - Nuclear Safety - No Accident is No Accident

The issue of nuclear safety is discussed under the following headings:

Safety and Risk

Canadian Approach

Regulation

Measures of Safety

Serious Accidents

Other Applications

Factual Summary

In a subject that can be highly controversial there are some facts that can be widely agreed:

• Zero risk is unattainable: there is no such thing as absolute safety, only relative safety.
• Making any one activity much safer than others can result in limited resources being unavailable to improve the safety of the least safe ones; and hence reduce the overall safety.
• The safety performance of Canadian nuclear-power reactors has been excellent, with no deaths or injuries in workers or the public attributed to their operation.
• Nevertheless, improvements are possible, notably in the safety culture of the institutions involved.
• The reactor accident at Chernobyl in the former U.S.S.R., the most serious anywhere, was due to a combination of design weaknesses and operating errors that could not occur in the Canadian regime.
• The harmful effects of the Chernobyl accident are well established; and much less serious than widely believed.

The safety of nuclear wastes, including their storage, transportation and disposal, is considered in Chapter 9.

Abbreviations

Technical Terms