Emergency responses to a spill of tritiated heavy water - the interface between emergency response, routine monitoring and research

On 8 December 1988 approximately 4000 kg of heavy water spilled into the basement of the National Research Universal (NRU) research reactor at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories. As a result of the accident, tritium was released to the atmosphere, through the reactor stack as well as from the NRU building itself, and to the Ottawa River through a previously unsuspected pathway from the reactor basement to a process sewer. Although the incident was of little radiological consequences, it served as a useful test of our emergency response. Most notable, the emergency response activities illustrated the value of maintaining a close linkage between the routine monitoring, environmental research and emergency response programmes. (author). 7 refs, 6 figs, 4 tabs