As the COVID-19 pandemic rolled across the country early this spring, shutting down airlines, retailers and legislatures, Canada’s nuclear industry rapidly put in place business contingency plans developed nearly 20 years ago after the SARS epidemic.
And, by all accounts, they worked.
Indeed, key industry players had long ago socked away tons of personal protective equipment (PPE) and developed “what-if” disaster plans that helped the country’s nuclear power plants, uranium mines, research reactors, and nuclear waste disposal sites roll with the pandemic punch.
And yet, as the pandemic shut down one industry after another this spring, senior staff at the country’s nuclear industry regulator worried that their ability and the ability of those they regulate to guarantee the safety of Canadians might have been put at risk.
“The health and safety of Canadians may appear to be compromised if [CNSC] operations do not take place as expected by Canadians,” said an 11-page memo prepared on April 14 titled “Identification of COVID-19 Related Risks.” A copy of that memo and other CNSC documents was obtained by Global News through federal access-to-information requests.
Those memos detail how senior staff at the country’s industry regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), immediately began daily meetings, with each participant joining in from home offices or other remote locations. CNSC staff were also in constant contact with its licensees — operators of nuclear facilities like Ontario Power Generation or Saskatoon-based uranium miner Cameco.
The April memo identified dozens of risks COVID-19 the CNSC was worried about. And yet, by June, the regulator was convinced that the industry had not only survived the crisis but, in some respects, had thrived during the pandemic.
“I think our licensees have actually done a very splendid job themselves in delivering, whatever business they’re in, in a very safe manner,” CNSC CEO Rumina Velshi said in an interview.
That assessment was confirmed in interviews with unions representing workers at nuclear facilities and with nuclear industry operators.