The IJC is a binational organization which was established in 1909 when Canada and the United States signed the Boundary Waters Treaty in which they agreed to manage and protect jointly shared Great Lakes water. The Boundary Waters Treaty was the first in a series of treaties signed by the two countries in an effort to restore and protect the natural resource of the region. To strengthen this resolve, the two countries signed the GLWQA in 1972, committing both sides to an agressive clean-up campaign. Through the IJC, Canada and the United States cooperatively resolve problems along their common border, including air and water pollution, lake levels, power generation, and other issues of mutual concern. The IJC began to identify areas where pollution problems were particularly bad in the early 1970s. It created a list of "Areas of Concern", defined to be harbours, river mouths, and connecting channels where use for fishing, swimming, migration, or drinking has been impaired by the presence of excess pollutants.
As a result of the 1985 Report of the Water Quality Board, the eight Great Lakes states and the province of Ontario have committed themselves to developing RAPs to restore beneficial uses in each Area of Concern. In 1987, Canada and the United States signed an amendment to the GLWQA specifying, among other things, the preparation of RAPs for the Areas of Concern that had been identified by the IJC. RAPs identify specific measures necessary to control existing sources of pollution, abate environmental contamination already present, and restore beneficial uses.
The development of RAPs represents a departure from most historic pollution control efforts where separate programmes for regulation and industrial discharge, urban runoff, and agricultural runoff were implemented without considering overlapping responsibilities. All RAPs will address these specific points:
The Great Lakes Water Quality Board is responsible for evaluating each RAP for its adequacy. This review is supposed to ensure that all of the above points are addressed and accomplished and that beneficial uses will be restored.
A RAP is released in three stages. Stage 1 describes environmental conditions and identifies environmental problems. Stage 2 outlines water uses to be restored, clean-up options, implementation schedules, and audit programme to ensure that objectives are met, and recommends further studies. Stage 3 requires and assessment of the remedial actions taken and documents the extent to which beneficial uses have been restored.
(1) Principles Which are the Foundation of the Siting Process for a Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility:
(2) Diagram Outlining the Consultative Siting Process:
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The concerns of the public about low-level radioactive waste are generally based on perceived threats to human health or the environment. The nuclei of certain atoms are, by their nature, unstable and liable to undergo spontaneous disintegration resulting in the emission of energy. This process is known as radioactive decay and unstable atoms are termed "radionuclides".
Radionuclides have been present in nature and widely distributed on earth since its creation. Naturally occurring minerals contain small proportions of radionuclides. For example, 0.012% of the world's potassium is in the form of radioactive Potassium 40. This proportion in invariable regardless of the source of potassium. Thus, the potassium within the bodies of all living things, including human beings, is slightly radioactive; it constantly gives of gamma rays which irradiate the tissues of all beings.
Radioactive Carbon 14 is continuously produced in the upper atmosphere by the action of cosmic rays on non-radioactive Nitrogen 14. As part of the gas is carbon dioxide, Carbon 14 is freely diffused through the atmosphere. Eventually, a small proportion of radioactive Carbon 14 becomes incorporated into the tissues of all living organisms.
Like radioactive carbon, Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is constantly being formed as a result of cosmic ray action on the upper atmosphere. It too is dispersed around the globe. For example, all rainwater contains detectable amounts of Tritium.
Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that is widely distributed on earth. Throughout the decay of uranium, a cascade of differnt radionuclides (a decay series) is formed until stable, non-radioactive lead is reached. One important member of the Uranium 238 decay series, the most common form of uranium, is Radium 226. This is the most common component of many low-level radioactive wastes, including those in the Port Hope area and in uranium mine and mill tailings. Another important member of the uranium decay series is the radioactive gas radon, which is present in varying concentrations worldwide and which, as a consequence, is constantly inhaled in varying degrees by everyone.
Radionuclides of the uranium decay series are examples of the earth's original store of radioactive atoms which are steadily decaying towards stability (i.e. becoming less radioactive). At the same time, new radionuclides are being formed (as in the case of Carbon 14 and Tritium). In addition, for more than 50 years, it has been possible to produce radionuclides deliberately. A wide variety of radioactive material is produced in nuclear reactors and cyclotrons for scientific research, industrial use, and medical diagnosis and therapy.
The energy emitted during radioactive decay may be in the form of alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays. These differ in their ability to penetrate tissue and other materials as well as in their potential toxicity, but each may be regarded as a form of radiation.
The term "radiation" is commonly used in several distinct although related senses. This paper, however, is concerned with ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is given off by numerous natural processes such as the nuclear fusion of the sun and the decay of naturally occurring elements on the earth and within our own bodies. It can also be artificially generated as in the production of X-rays for industrial or medical purposes and in the use of radioactive materials for electrical power generation. As a result, all living and inanimate things are constantly subjected to radiation, the composition (and hence the effects) of which varies from place to place. It is largely natural and never totally absent or avoidable.
Every place on earth is bathed in ionizing radiation which comes in various sources including cosmic radiation, radiation from radioactive materials that surround everyone, the building materials in homes, schools and places of work, radiation from ubiquitous radon, and internal radiation from radioactive materials that are constituents of all living matter. Radiation from these sources is known as "natural backgound radiation". Its level can vary as much as tenfold in various locations around the globe. In spite of such variation, it is not possible to demonstrate any difference in the prevalence of biological effects of ionizing radiation between populations chronically exposed to these background levels. This is one reason why it is believed that background radiation cannot account for more than a few percent of the world's genetic abnormalities, birth defects and cancers. Similarly, it appears unlikely that any small exposure to ionizing radiation above natural background radiation can be a major cause of these conditions if the magnitude of exposure is of the same order as the variations in natural background radiation which occur from place to place. Many other factors and many other toxins have been shown to be responsible for presicely the same kinds of genetic adnormalities as those ascribed to ionizing radiation.
At very high levels, however, the effect of ionizing radiation upon acutely exposed living organisms can be lethal. This effect is used deliberately in the radiation treatment of certain cancers and in the sterilization of medical and surgical equipment.
The levels of exposure which might conceivably be received from low-level radioactive waste are generally thousands of times less than doses used in cancer therapy, even for people who could most directly be exposed. The radiation effects theat might be relevant in the case of low-level radioactive waste include increases in the prevalence of genetic defect, congenital malformations (birth defects) and neoplasms (cancers) in an exposed population. Of the abnormalities that may be cited as being induced by ionizing radiation, however, none is specific to radiation damage alone. In any population exposed to low-level radiation doses such as those from low-level radioactive wastes, there will be many more genetic abnormalities, birth defects and cancers that arise spontaneously or are due to other causes, than could conceivably be due to such radiation exposure. In any individual case, it is not possible to say whether or not a given efect is specifically due to a person's exposure to ionizing radiation. In large populations studied by epidemiological techniques, it may be possible to attribute an increased prevalence of a specific effect to the exposure of the population to elevated levels of ionizing radiation. In technical terms, however, this is extremely difficult to do for human populations, even in cases invloving the highest level of radiation exposure that might be received.
The risk on untoward effects from the levels of ionizing radiation to which the public is exposed, except in the most extraordinary circumstances, is extremely small both in absolute terms, and in relation to other types of risks which society deems acceptable.
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This page was last updated on September 24, 2000.
© Copyright 1991, 1998-2000 Michael L. Robling. All rights reserved.
E-mail: mrobling@nctvcable.com
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