AECL’s strategic environmental objectives for the operation of its sites in Canada are to:

• prevent AECL activities from causing environmental degradation;
• demonstrate environmentally responsible management;
• demonstrate environmental compliance; and,
• demonstrate continual improvement in environmental performance.

To help verify that we are meeting these objectives, AECL maintains a comprehensive effluent and environmental monitoring program at our Canadian sites. Environmental monitoring is regularly conducted on various media, including ambient air, surface waters, vegetation, soil and sediments, and game animals. We document effluent releases and environmental monitoring results in annual Performance Reports that are submitted to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and are available to the public upon request. The data in these reports show that releases of radioactivity into the environment from our sites are low and have been declining for the past decade. In fact, radioactive and non-radioactive emissions from our sites and facilities remain well below regulatory limits.

As part of continual improvement efforts, we recently conducted an Ecological Effects Review of the Chalk River Laboratories. The assessment covered both radiological and non-radiological stressors and considered impacts on human and non-human biota. The Ecological Effects Review is a lower-tier ecological risk assessment, the objective of which was to quantify, using available data, the potential effects of operations and activities at the Chalk River Laboratories site, including effects on and off the site.  The study concluded that no significant ecological effects are likely to result.