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housand times more expensive than gold, tritium, a by-
a of nuclear power is essential for nuclear weapons pro-
ston. And if Ontario Hydro has its way, Canada will soon

ty SHANE PARKHILL
onmon is by far the most
It Substance in the uni-
"~~. POwers the sun, is found
tnbines the Earth’s crust, and
te, ©’ With oxygen to form
dy a average adult human
f Mains about 7 kilograms
agnever, there is a special
a0 be 1: heavy”’ hydrogen that
Produced in nuclear reac-
Rown as tritium, this mate-
15,009 4 market value of over
a gram — more than a
Tce of umes higher than the
~ 80ld. Unlike normal hyd-
ee is radioactive. It
Ons mber of industrial appli-
lens 3} Providing light for exit
She: Ports and oil rigs, as well
Neg Ng Useful for certain types of
nf Tesearch.
Mie ney, it is not these
titi ve USes that account for
. 8 astronomical price tag;
oneal use is in the manufac-
tari Nuclear weapons. And if
Canad Hydro has its way,
Wo d's iS soon become the
argest exporter of this
terial of mass destruction.

in:
Worker Safety”
© whole issue supposedly
Sut of a question of worker
a Titium is an unintended
an oie of the fission process
“lant €cts in the heavy water
orm and moderator during the
Speration of CANDU nu-
: actors: As long as this
bin lve water remains in its
re is no serious prob-
Teactors in Ontario have
€d frequent leaks,
Bering those who must
Accg und them.
kes Tding to Dave Martin,
, Person for the Toronto-
50 uclear Awareness Pro-
ee ‘Hydro’s real mo-
f Ve little to do with worker
Ut are in reality ‘‘crassly

~h, but
wtlop

commercial’. Martin points out
that work on the $100-million tri-
tium recovery facilities at Dar-
lington, Ontario (scheduled to
begin operation next year) was
not initiated until it was apparent
that there might be a lucrative
market for the substance. Ontario
Hydro’s major tritium customer
will inevitably be the United
States.

Ontario Hydro insists that
Canada’s tritium will only serve
civilian needs, and sale for milit-
ary use will be prohibited. But
there are several reasons for being
skeptical of these assurances.
Canada has a long history of sell-
ing strategic nuclear materials to
the U.S. for military purposes.
From 1942 to 1967 Canada sup-
plied 25 per cent of the U.S. de-
mand for uranium, and since
there was never any clear separa-
tion between civilian and military
uranium, it is virtually certain that
some Canadian uranium went
into U.S. bombs. Despite re-
strictions, the U.S. has in the past
secretly diverted plutonium pur-
chased from the U.K. ostensibly
for peaceful purposes into bomb
production.

Exceeds civilian demand

Also ominous is the fact that
the Darlington facility will be
extracting about 4 kilograms of
tritium per year, between 8 and 20
times the world’s present civilian
demand. Ontario Hydro must not
only sell the material, but it must
actually create whole new mar-
kets for it. There are few pro-
posed uses for which tritium is the
only option. ‘‘Either there are
better ways of doing the things
they want to do with tritium,”
says Martin, ‘‘or the uses they
have in mind are frivolous.’’ If
attempts to stimulate civilian tri-
tium demand fail there will be a
major financial temptation to turn
a blind eye to any illicit U.S. mili-

tary uses of Canadian tritium.

Even if Ontario Hydro should
succeed in restricting the use ofits
exported tritium to civilian uses,
it may still make a major contri-
bution to Reagan’s goal of
producing 17,000 new nuclear
warheads by the end of this de-
cade. At present, all of the tritium
for peaceful . purposes in the
United States has to be supplied
by the U.S. military. By saturat-
ing the civilian market, Canada
would be relieving the Pentagon
of this responsibility, allowing it
to channel all of its tritium into
weapons production.

Moreover, most U.S. tritium is
produced in military reactors that
can also be used to produce plu-
tonium, another critical material
used in nuclear bombs. The U.S.
is presently producing enough
plutonium for 700 new bombs a
year. Reducing the demand for
tritium in the U.S. could allow the

‘military to increase this to 800.

Ontario Hydro may be pushing
Canada into a deadly division of
labor with the Pentagon.

Nuclear dilemma

Hydro argues that the US.
military has, or will have, the abil-
ity to produce enough plutonium
and tritium to satisfy its own
needs. This may or may not be
true. The exact figures concern-
ing U.S. supply and demand are
classified, but there is evidence
that Reagan’s all-out efforts to
build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal
are making supplies of these two
strategic materials an important
concern. Many of the existing
military reactors are approaching
the end of their useful life spans.

Good GOD... CONTINUING
HIGH LEVELS OF
ARROSANCE

Future production rests on the
timely development of new facili-
ties, and nuclear reactor
construction has a long history of
falling behind schedule. Reagan’s
military spending spree has faced
stern opposition in the U.S., so
that Canadian production of tri-
tium would take some of the poli-
tical as well as financial pressure
off the Reagan administration.

As well as endangering world
peace, Ontario Hydro’s tritium
retrieval project will cause
environmental hazards for Cana-
dians. One Ontario Hydro official
delights in appearing at public
meetings with a_ glowing,
tritium-filled tube on his key chain
to demonstrate the material’s
supposed safety. When tritium
escapes into the environment,
however, it combines with oxy-
gen to form radioactive water,
which will be absorbed by living
organisms, causing cancer and
mutations.

In 1983, a major leak in one of
the eight reactors at Pickering,
Ontario dumped large quantities
of contaminated water inside the
reactor building. While most of it
was cleaned up, a significant
amount had to be washed out of
the building and dumped into the
environment. Less dramatic
emissions of tritium from nuclear
reactors occur routinely. Ontario
Hydro’s own figures indicate that
the amount of tritium in Lake On-
tario has already risen noticeably
in the last few years, and the situa-
tion can only get worse as trucks
begin transporting tons of tri-

tium-contaminated water from
the Pickering nuclear reactors to
the Darlington tritium recovery
facility. Hydro tacitly admitted
the seriousness of tritium’s health
hazards recently by reducing the
allowable exposure of its
workers.

Only four cents |

In the unlikely event that On-
tario Hydro’s projections of the
profitability of tritium sales are
accurate, the average electrical
consumer’s bill will only be re-
duced by 4 cents a month. The
real reason for Ontario Hydro’s
scheme is that despite billions of
dollars of the taxpayers’ and
Hydro ratepayers’ money, nu-
clear energy in Canada has
proved to be an increasingly
uneconomical way to produce

electricity. In order to help this

lame-duck industry stay alive,
Canadian government and indus-
try are willing to take on any
potentially profitable nuclear-
related business proposition,
even if it means further integrat-
ing this country into the U.S. war
machine and endangering the
health of Canadian citizens.

‘‘Their strategy is a sound one
if you are completely immoral and
don’t mind getting your hands
dirty in more ways than one,”
says Martin. This is an apt de-
scription of Ontario Hydro’s at-
titude toward nuclear energy, and
explains why its current plans are
meeting with growing public
resistance.

Special to the Tribune
AWA — Alexei Makarov,
T-Counsellor of the Soviet em-
_Would like the Deschenes
‘ssion, to reconsider its decision
travel to the Soviet Union to hear
Ice against suspected war crim-
Ving in Canada.

OV told the Tribune that he re-

job the lost opportunity “‘to complete
Riggs ToPperly, by going to the Soviet
++, Lhe Soviets, he said, had done
* deal of work to find the witnesses

Scumentation exposing the war
4. US, and it is unfortunate to see this

the wy wasted.

to, Teasons’’.
ec" the beginning, Makarov said,
Was not genuine interest on the

Counsel to go... and we suspect-

ed they would attempt to find pretexts’’.

Despite Commission claims that the
Soviet Union was unwilling to comply
with its conditions — hearing evidence
according to Canadian procedures,
interpreters, etc. — this was not the case
said Makarov. ‘‘The USSR stated in its
first letter to the Department of External
Affairs that it accepted these
conditions.”

He said the second pretext claimed by
the Commission — that the USSR had
committed a breach of confidentiality —
was equally false, and that the Soviet
Union had never published or released
the names of those 15-16 people the De-

- gschenes Commission was interested in.

‘He said he ‘‘cannot accept’’ the fact
that the Commission, after waiting 40
years would not extend its mandate to
give it three and a half months to examine
the Soviet evidence. — ee,
_ ‘Why not go now?’’ Makarov asked.

‘This would be consequent and logical if

the Canadian government is really seek-
ing war criminals. We have waited 40
years; why not wait another month and
end the mandate on October 30 (it ex-
pires on Sept. 30)?”

He told the Tribune the USSR would
be ready to welcome a delegation to hear
evidence and question witnesses even

after the Commission released its report..

The USSR had at great effort assembled
70 witnesses to give evidence against the
persons the Commission was interested
in, 34 of them against two people
Makarov called ‘“‘the two most out-
rageous cases’’.

Makarov said the Soviet authorities
were ready to begin work with the
Commission lawyers in Lvov (the Uk-
raine) in the first week questioning the 34
witnesses. ‘‘Then they could go else-
where to question the others’.

The Commission lawyers could work
20 hours a day and complete their job in
the USSR in a couple of weeks. ‘‘But

perhaps they didn’t really intend to do
any work at all,”

War crimes are unpardonable,
Makarov said, and there should be no
limitation on their perpetrators being
brought to justice. ‘“War criminals are
not human beings,”” he continued, “‘this
is why we in the Soviet Union are so
touchy and sensitive about the ques-
tion.”

The crimes of those persons being in-
vestigated by the Deschenes Commis- —
sion ‘‘make one’s hair stand on end.
They are abhorrent people, animals,”’
the Soviet diplomat said.

Makarov called the setting up of the
Deschenes Commission ‘‘a bold move.
We appreciate that Canada values the
attitude of the USSR in this matter,”” he
said. ‘‘We appreciate any request from
Canada for materials or anything else. If
Canada decides after the Commission __
report to pursue the matter further, it will a
be welcome,’” Makarov said. ios

hight pressure keeps Deschenes from S.U.

| PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 25, 198667

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