3.1 Initial notification

3.1.1 According to responsibilities under federal legislation (see PNERP Master Plan, paragraph 5.5.1) and regulations and/or under its agreement with the provincial government, AECL-CRL shall notify the pre-designated contact points (paragraph 3.1.6 below) in the provincial and municipal emergency organizations as soon as conditions arise at the facility which require such initial notification under the criteria prescribed in Table 3.1 and, as incorporated in facility procedures.

3.1.2 AECL-CRL will complete this initial notification to the provincial contact point within 15 minutes of the requirement for notification being recognized.

3.1.3 The form and content of the initial notification shall be determined by the Chief, Emergency Management Ontario. The notification shall always contain the highest applicable category. In the case of a General Emergency or Onsite Emergency notification, the message must state whether an emission is ongoing or if not, give a best estimate of when it is expected to commence and the wind direction at the time of the notification.

3.1.4 If the assessment of the onsite situation changes to warrant a different category from the one initially notified, AECL-CRL shall immediately make a report of its new assessment to the provincial contact point. This can be done up to four hours after the initial notification. However, once ongoing reporting by AECL-CRL to the Scientific Section of the PEOC is established, there is no longer a requirement for any change in the category to be reported by the nuclear facility staff.

3.1.5 AECL-CRL cannot terminate or cancel an initial notification once it has been made. Such a notification will automatically lapse when the provincial response to it is formally terminated (paragraph 3.2.3 below).

3.1.6 Contact points

  1. The Provincial contact point shall be the PEOC.
  2. The following municipal contact point shall be set out in the Municipal Plan (Section 1.3):
    • A notification contact point for the receipt of initial notifications on a 24 hour/day, 7 day/week basis.
    • A municipal emergency response staff person who can be contacted on a 24 hour/day, 7 day/week basis for passage of information and monitoring of the situation, following the initiation of a notification.

3.2 Initial provincial and municipal response

3.2.1 The initial provincial response to a notification from AECL-CRL shall depend on the category (and other relevant information) contained in the notification message.

3.2.2 Within 15 minutes of the receipt of an initial notification, the PEOC shall decide on the initial response level to be adopted, and inform the municipal contact point. This level will normally be the one linked to the category of the notification received (see Table 3.1 below) unless another level is judged to be more appropriate.

3.2.3 The provincial response level initially adopted can be changed to another level, if considered appropriate, by the PEOC. Such a change can include termination of the provincial response. All concerned shall be notified of any such change (see sections 3.3 and 3.4).

3.2.4 The initial (and any subsequent) response level to be adopted by the municipalities and other organizations shall be communicated by the PEOC (paragraphs 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 above). The general nature of the municipal response for each level is outlined in Table 3.2; the specific response shall be prescribed in the municipal plan.

3.3 Internal notifications

3.3.1 If the PNERP is to be activated (whether fully or partially), the PEOC shall issue an appropriate notification (including an indication of the level of activation) to its staff as well as to the provincial staff of the Emergency Information Section and to at least one pre-designated contact point in each of the following jurisdictions and organizations:

  • Laurentian Hills and Deep River
  • The Province of Quebec
  • Host municipality - Town of Deep River
  • Each Provincial-level organization required to respond to the emergency
  • AECL-CRL - EOC

3.3.2 Other organizations

Each jurisdiction/organization receiving notification of an Activation Response (either Partial or Full) should issue an appropriate internal notification to its units and individuals who are required to respond. The notification shall indicate the level of activation to be adopted.

3.3.3 Notification procedures and lists

The PEOC and each jurisdiction/organization required to issue an internal or external notification (section 3.4 below) should prepare a procedure and lists of recipients.

3.4 External notifications

3.4.1 Upon adoption of an Activation Response (Partial or Full), external notifications will be carried out as detailed below. The notification should indicate the level of activation being adopted.

3.4.2 The PEOC shall notify:

  • The Federal government
  • The Province of Quebec
  • The State of New York
  • The State of Ohio
  • The State of Michigan
  • Canadian News Wire and/or Ontario Newsroom

3.4.3 The Federal government will, in turn, notify the U.S. government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under existing agreements and conventions.

3.4.4 Certain other agencies/organizations shall be notified by the following:

  1. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs shall notify:

    ⚬ Dairy Farmers of Ontario

  2. Ministry of Community & Social Services shall notify:

    ⚬ Red Cross, Ontario Zone

  3. Ministry of Natural Resources shall notify:

    ⚬ Algonquin Provincial Park

  4. The PEOC shall notify:
    • National Transportation Agency - Emergency Alert
    • Air Traffic Control
    • CN Rail
    • CP Rail
    • VIA Rail
  5. The Municipal Plan shall provide for the following external notifications:
    • Local Utilities (Hydro, Gas, Water)
    • Local Branches of Voluntary Organizations
    • Ottawa Valley Rail Link
    • Appropriate School Boards
    • Emergency Medical Services

3.5 Public alerting

3.5.1 Public alerting systems developed under the PNERP shall conform to the following principles:

  1. The Towns of Laurentian Hills and Deep River, as the designated (Primary Zone) municipalities (see PNERP Master Plan, Annex A), shall make provisions, in their Municipal Plan, for a public alerting system which shall ensure that the Primary Zone population, that may be required to undertake the initial protective measures of sheltering, evacuation, and/or ingestion of KI, can be alerted within 15 minutes of initiation.
  2. The Municipal Plan shall detail how this requirement will be met.
  3. The nuclear emergency response plan for the Towns of Laurentian Hills and Deep River and for the Province shall include provisions to coordinate the timing of public alerting, public direction and emergency information. This will ensure that the population will have timely and accurate information on what protective measures to take once they have been alerted of an emergency.
  4. The Towns of Laurentian Hills and Deep River shall undertake an initial evaluation of any new system to ensure that the requirements under this policy have been met. Further, they shall integrate regular testing of existing public alerting systems, as a component of their standard exercise program.

3.5.2 The public alerting system for an AECL-CRL emergency shall, in addition to adhering to the principles in paragraph 3.5.1 above, meet the following requirements:

  1. AECL-CRL shall provide the resources and assistance to the Towns of Laurentian Hills and Deep River to enable them to establish and maintain a public alerting system. The public alerting system selected must be subject to consultation amongst the province, AECL-CRL and the designated (Primary Zone) municipalities.
  2. The public alerting system must provide, within 15 minutes of initiation, warning to the population in the Primary Zone whether they be indoors or outdoors, and irrespective of the time of day or year.
  3. Such a public alerting system, coupled together with emergency bulletins, will ensure that the population within the Primary Zone will be notified in an effective and timely manner.

3.5.3 Implementation

  1. In case of a General Emergency notification from AECL-CRL the municipal contact point should immediately initiate the public alerting system without reference to any other authority.
  2. In all other cases, the decision as to when the public alerting system is to be initiated will be made following discussion between the Municipal EOC and the PEOC.

3.6 Emergency bulletins

3.6.1 Whenever the public alerting system is initiated, the PEOC will issue an Emergency Bulletin to the media. The bulletin will contain specific instructions on what actions the public should take and should be continuously repeated for an adequate period of time.

3.6.2 Marine notification and public direction

  1. The Municipal Plan shall detail how notification and evacuation assistance will be provided to marine craft (with and without radios) on the Ottawa River.
  2. The OPP Marine Unit will assist in the notification and evacuation of marine craft:
    1. Ottawa Valley detachment response (with Eastern Region marine resources).
    2. Support from North Eastern Region, as required.

3.7 Activation of emergency plans - immediate actions

3.7.1 All jurisdictions and organizations identified in this Plan, which receive a notification of plan activation, should immediately activate their own plans for dealing with an AECL-CRL emergency. These plans should be fully or partially activated as indicated in the notification received.

3.7.2 Table 3.2 outlines the immediate provincial and municipal response actions to be undertaken for each response level.

Table 3.1: Initial notification categories and criteria

Table showing notification categories, applicable criteria and operational examples of each.
Category Criteria Examples
Reportable event
  1. Any event or condition that reduces the nuclear facility's capability to deal with an emergency onsite, and which persists for longer than eight hours.
  2. Any event or condition that reduces the nuclear facility's capability to provide the agreed offsite emergency support, and which is expected to persist for over eight hours, or actually does so.
  3. Activation of the emergency cooling injection system.
  4. Any credible publicly announced threat to, or attempted or actual breach of, the facility's security.
  5. Any event that has a reasonable potential to escalate into an abnormal incident.
  6. An incident which arises or is likely to arouse public concern or media interest.

1. Failure/loss unavailability of the emergency core cooling system or the emergency filtration system, except when the reactor is shut down.

2. Reduced ability to :

2A. Carry out offsite field monitoring.

2B Provide source term data.

2C. Provide required personnel to the offsite emergency response organization.

3. Testing excluded.

4A. A publicized bomb threat.

4B. A breach or attempted breach of the perimeter.

5A. Fire/explosion in non-nuclear facility.

5B. Forest fire in exclusion zone.

5C. Earthquake

6A. If a news release is to be issued.

6B. If media or public phone in queries.

6C. If event likely to become widely known.
Abnormal incident
  1. A large[*] spill/loss of reactor or loop cooling water with no fuel failures (actual or likely).
  2. Loss of multiple safety systems or safety related system barriers.
  3. Natural, toxic, flammable, destructive or other phenomena which have the potential to threaten the physical integrity of the heat transfer boundary or the moderator system.
  4. Activation of a Stay-In alert or Site Evacuation signal due to an occurrence which has the potential to result in radiation health effects.

3A. Extreme environmental conditions e.g. flood, tornado.

3B. Earthquake damage.

3C. Fire or explosion.
Onsite emergency
  1. A loss of coolant accident (LOCA)involving fuel failure, with actual or potential emission of radioactive material to the atmosphere that may result in an effective dose at the CRL boundary of less than 1 mSv (100 mrem) within four hours.
  2. An emission of radioactive material to the atmosphere from any source that may result in an effective dose at the CRL site boundary of less than 1 mSv (100 mrem) within 4 hours.
  3. An event or condition which has the potential to lead to a General emergency criterion, concurrent with the loss of the ability to detect or control such a development.
  4. Hostile action resulting in actual or potential loss of control over a facility, but excluding NRU.

3A. Loss of all classes of power.

3B. Extreme environmental conditions e.g. flood, tornado.

3C. Earthquake damage.

3D. Fire or explosion.
General emergency
  1. Severe damage to reactor fuel leading to an emission of radioactivity to the atmosphere that may result in a dose at the CRL site boundary of, or exceeding 1 mSv (100 mrem) within four hrs.
  2. A significant emission of radioactive material to the atmosphere from any source that may result in a dose at the CRL site boundary of, or exceeding 1 mSv (100 mrem) within 4 hours.
  3. Hostile action resulting in actual or imminent loss of the ability to achieve and maintain the NRU reactor in a shutdown state.

1. LOCA with significant fuel failures/core damage.

3. Sabotage or threat of sabotage of critical reactor systems.

[*] To be quantitatively defined in facility procedures.

Table 3.2: Initial provincial and municipal response

Initial notification Initial provincial response Initial municipal response
Reportable event
  1. PEOC shall notify the municipal contact point, AECL-CRL the Province of Quebec and others as appropriate, and shall monitor the situation.
  2. Scientific staff is consulted, if appropriate.
  3. If and when appropriate, PEOC Emergency Information (EI) staff issues news release(s).

Emergency response staff remain in contact with the PEOC, and monitor event.
Abnormal incident

Enhanced monitoring

  1. PEOC shall adopt Enhanced Monitoring, and shall so inform the municipal contact point(s), AECL-CRL Province of Quebec, and any other organizations affected.
  2. External notifications to Michigan, New York and Ohio are made.
  3. PEOC to set up a duty team consisting of operations staff, scientific staff, AECL-CRL representative, EI staff and others as required.
  4. If and when appropriate, PEOC EI staff issue news release(s).
  5. Provincial staff is notified to remain available to report in for duty.

Emergency response staff monitor event, preferably from the Municipal EOC (MEOC).
Onsite emergency

(No significant emission occurring)

Partial activation

  1. PEOC shall adopt a Partial Activation response (for details, see section 3.7.3), and shall initiate the appropriate internal and external notifications (see sections 3.3 and 3.4 respectively), including the municipal contact point and the host community.
  2. PEOC shall be fully staffed. Considerations shall be given to issuing an Emergency Bulletin and/or news release (see sections 4.13).
  3. PEOC to discuss option of activating public alerting system with municipal officials.
  4. Ministry EOCs and Joint Traffic Control Centre (JTCC) to be established and appropriately staffed.
  5. Ongoing assessments conducted to determine need for protective actions.
  1. Issue notification placing municipal emergency response organization on standby.
  2. Municipal EOC fully staffed
  3. Discuss option of activating public alerting system with PEOC
  4. Emergency Information Centre (EIC) to be established
  5. Other emergency centres readied to become operational without undue delay
General emergency

Full activation

  1. PEOC shall notify and ensure that the municipal contact point has activated the public alerting system (section 3.5).
  2. PEOC shall adopt Full Activation (for details, see paragraph 3.7.4), and shall issue the appropriate Emergency Bulletin (see section 3.6 and section 4.12).
  3. PEOC shall issue operational directives implementing the following operational measures unless there are good reasons for modifying this response:
    1. suspension of road and rail traffic through the Primary Zone.
    2. sheltering of the Primary Zone.
    3. clearance of boaters in Sector 11.
  4. PEOC shall initiate the appropriate internal and external notifications (see sections 3.3 and 3.4 respectively), including the host community.
  5. PEOC shall assess the situation for further action (see section 4.4).
  6. PEOC shall issue further emergency bulletins, as appropriate (section 4.12).
  7. PEOC EI section shall issue news releases, as appropriate (section 4.13).
  8. Ministry EOCs and JTCC to be established.
  1. Initiate public alerting.
  2. Issue notification activating municipal emergency response organization.
  3. Municipal EOC, EIC and EWC activated and fully staffed
  4. Reception/MDU and Evacuee Centres readied to become operational without undue delay.
  5. Implement operational directives issued by the PEOC.

3.7.3 Partial activation

  1. Emergency plans are partially activated when it is anticipated that protective and/or operational measures (other than monitoring and assessment of the situation) are not likely to be immediately required.
  2. When the PNERP and other emergency plans are partially activated, the following actions shall be provided for in plans and procedures:
    1. Activation and full staffing of the PEOC and the Municipal EOC so as to monitor and assess the situation on a continuous basis.
    2. PEOC and Municipal EOC to discuss option of activating public alerting system.
    3. Activation of the Ministry EOCs and Joint Traffic Control Centre and staffing as appropriate.
    4. Activation of the Emergency Information Centre (EIC) with staffing at an appropriate level. Provincial staff to be dispatched, as appropriate.
    5. All emergency response personnel not immediately required should be placed on standby. This status should ensure that they can be quickly contacted when needed to report to their duty stations.
    6. Other emergency centres should be readied to a level where they can become fully operational without undue delay, when required. Specific levels shall be prescribed in the Municipal Plan.

3.7.4 Full activation

  1. A Full Activation response will be adopted by the PEOC when it is expected that protective and/or operational measures to deal with the emergency are necessary.
  2. Major organization plans under this PNERP (municipal, nuclear facility, ministry) should provide for the following actions upon adoption of a Full Activation response:
    1. All emergency operations centres and the emergency information centre, to be fully staffed and operational.
    2. The municipal reception centre(s), evacuee centres(s) and monitoring and decontamination units should be readied to a level where they can become fully operational without undue delay when required.
    3. All emergency response personnel to immediately report to their places of duty (unless specifically exempted – see (ii) above).
    4. The field elements under the Scientific Section's monitoring groups to be placed on standby.

3.7.5 Assurance/General province-wide monitoring group plan

  1. Upon adoption of either Partial or Full Activation, the Assurance/General Province-Wide Monitoring Group Plan should be partially activated (paragraph 3.7.3 above).
  2. The Plan would be fully activated when it appears likely that radioactive contamination will occur in Ontario or some part thereof. Such activation should be done early enough to enable baseline data, at locations additional to those in the MOL Nuclear Reactor Surveillance Program, to be accumulated.
  3. The decision to fully activate this Plan will be made by the PEOC.

3.7.6 Radiation health response plan

  1. The MOHLTC issues the RHRP as an organizational plan under the PNERP.
  2. The RHRP describes how Ontario's health care system will respond to a radiological/nuclear event of a malicious or accidental nature. The RHRP sets out a comprehensive province-wide approach to health preparedness and response planning, and provides information to guide local radiological/nuclear planning groups.
  3. The RHRP will be fully activated through the MOHLTC EOC when it seems likely that the incident may result in high radiation exposures to some persons and/or when Thyroid Blocking is contemplated.

3.7.7 Coordination of the response to a liquid emission at AECL-Chalk River Laboratories

  1. A liquid emission is a waterborne release from a nuclear facility resulting in discharges with above normal levels of radioactivity.
  2. The main radiation exposure pathway for a liquid emission from AECL-CRL is through contamination of the water supply, with the resulting hazard being the subsequent ingestion of such contaminated water or species living in the contaminated water.
  3. Because of the limited hazard posed by a liquid emission, it is dealt with differently from an atmospheric emission of radioactivity, through the Coordination of the Response to a Liquid Emission at Chalk River Laboratories. It prescribes the organization, operating procedures, linkages, notification criteria, response measures, criteria for their application, etc. for undertaking a provincial response to a liquid emission
  4. A liquid emission response undertaken pursuant to the Coordination of the Response to a Liquid Emission at Chalk River Laboratories, may shift to a PNERP response should events escalate to a magnitude where it is deemed appropriate.
  5. Further, if the PEOC is functioning as a result of the activation of the PNERP, any liquid emission from AECL-CRL will be dealt with under the PNERP, irrespective of whether the original activation of the PEOC was for an AECL-CRL or any other nuclear emergency.