There are two parts to this episode: Part 1 is a Q & A session with BWXT company representatives Natalie Cutler, David Snopek and Ted Richardson as they explain why their plant is safe, while in Part 2 Jim Dufresne, a retired GE nuclear worker, describes the health status of his former colleagues at the plant on Monaghan Road. Part 1 was recorded at the BWXT plant on January 16, while Part 2 was recorded in Warsaw, Ontario on January 5. BWXT’S Cutler says she would send her daughter to Prince of Wales Public School without any hesitation. This school is across Monaghan Road from her company’s nuclear plant. Dufresne says that out of 175 ex-employees of GE nuclear/GE Hitachi, 64 have died of various cancers.

Caveats:

• It is unclear as to what portion of the hazards described by Jim Dufresne occurred on the nuclear side of the GE plant. Some of these health incidents may have occurred in other parts of GE’s formerly extensive operations in Peterborough.  Dufresne retired from GE in 2004.
• The health outcomes among ex-GE workers, including those who worked in the nuclear side of the business, have not been verified by an independent epidemiological study. “Groups formed to help those retirees and workers with their claims and to pressure for more help for them. In September 2017, WSIB started a year-long a review of more than 230 claims that were previously rejected. New scientific evidence came into play, prompting the review. On Aug. 1 (2018), WSIB stated that of 233 cases that were reopened, 71 were accepted (most of them cancer cases).”  – Jessica Nyznik, Peterborough Examiner, Dec. 21, 2018
• BWXT took over the operation of their facilities at the legacy GE plant on Monaghan Road in 2016.