A Critical Review of Health Impact Assessments in Ontario's Nuclear Industry

Risk is central to the health effects of nuclear power plants. The regulator in Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), claims to employ international best practices and risk-informed decision-making to ensure Canadian plants are among the safest in the world. Environmental Assessment (EA), required for operating license approval, is used to determine whether risks to pubic health, both chronic and catastrophic, are within acceptable limits. The main objective of this thesis is to establish Health Risk Assessment (HRA) best practices, approximated by the degree of concordance among HRA authorities, and use these concepts to evaluate EAs of recent nuclear power projects. The extent of compliance would ultimately reveal the CNSC’s commitment to protecting public health and safety. It is concluded from the review of six such EAs that the CNSC is falling short of best practices, ultimately approving projects without an accurate estimation of risk.