Shipping Steam Generators in the Great Lakes
CELA counsel represent the Sierra Club of Canada and the Canadian Environmental Law Association in two Applications for Judicial Review in Federal Court. The Applications were issued March 4, 2011. One Application, brought against Bruce Power, the Minister of Transport, and the federal Attorney General, challenges the export licence issued by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on February 3, 2011. This licence amended a licence issued in January 2010, which had expired, and which grants Bruce Power permission to export the steam generators and the nuclear substances they contain, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Export and Import Control regulations.
The other Application, brought against the same Respondents, challenges the Transport Licence and Certificate of Transport, also issued by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, allowing Bruce Power to undertake road and marine transport of the sixteen steam generators and their nuclear substances under a “special arrangement.” This licence was issued February 4, 2011. The sixteen steam generators were used for decades for power production in the heart of the Bruce A Nuclear Generating Station, and when Bruce Power sought permission to refurbish that plant, it then stated the generators were not suitable for recycling and would be placed in the Western Waste Management Facility for interim and medium term storage. Some years later, in late 2009, Bruce Power apparently formed another plan and sought these approvals from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. After extensive expression of public concern, the CNSC held a public hearing in September 2010 on the special arrangement transport licence. Over 75 Intervenors made submissions to that hearing.
These Judicial Review Applications challenge the legality of the Licences, on the basis of non-compliance with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which the CNSC stated it did not have to apply, as well as on the basis of failure to follow the rules of natural justice in the case of the export licence, and the inadequacy or absence of the CNSC’s reasons for its decisions.