Health Canada expands research collaboration with SNOLAB

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Apart from its underground physics research, SNOLAB in Sudbury is playing an enhanced role in checking for radiation in the air and water. 

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Earlier this year, Health Canada added two new radiological monitoring stations to the lab’s surface facility at Creighton Mine. 

“Together with the help of various research institutions, SNOLAB is excited to help Health Canada improve their understanding of environmental radiation,” said Jeter Hall, director of research at the Lively science facility, in a release. “SNOLAB maintains Germanium counters, radon counters, and even maintains a materials radioactivity data repository to better understand sources of radiation.” 

For example, SNOLAB will sometimes perform gamma counting of the air filters at its clean surface lab to increase the number of isotopes that can be measured.

The two new stations are additions to a national monitoring program through Health Canada, which “assesses both natural and human-caused radiation in the environment in order to help Canadians understand and manage their health risks,” the department said.

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The program is made up of two networks: the Fixed Point Surveillance Network and the Canadian Radiological Monitoring Network. 

The FPSN was launched in 2002 after the terrorist attacks in the United States. The network provides real-time data from strategic locations across Canada to support Canada’s national monitoring system and the Federal Nuclear Emergency Plan. 

SNOLAB’s FPSN is one of over 100 fixed point detectors monitoring radiation doses in real time across Canada. Each detector generates a data set every 15 minutes and millions of measurements every year across the country. Results are publicly available in real time on Open Maps. 

In operation since 1959, the CRMN collects air particulate, precipitation, and water vapour samples at various sites across the country, which are then measured in the RPB lab in Ottawa. SNOLAB’s CRMN is one of 30 dedicated radiological monitoring stations also across Canada, providing weekly air, deposition, and dosimeter data. (A dosimeter is an instrument used to measure ionizing radiation exposure.) 

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SNOLAB’s scientific support staff oversee weekly monitoring at the Sudbury station. SNOLAB staff ship the air filter and precipitation samples to Health Canada in Ottawa, while dosimeter samples are shipped every four months. 

“The data from both these networks have helped to establish long-term trends in environmental radioactivity from natural contributions,” said Health Canada. “With the continuous monitoring, RPB is able to identify radioactivity generated by human activities such as historical fallout, nuclear power generation, medical isotope production, and international nuclear or radiological incidents.”

RPB aims to “help Canadians understand sources of ionizing radiation in their surroundings and to make informed decisions to manage their exposure,” the department added. 

The radiological monitoring stations build on Health Canada’s existing partnership with SNOLAB’s underground Low Background Counting Facility. 

The Radiation Protection Bureau said it welcomes the collaboration and hopes to better integrate SNOLAB’s capacity in Health Canada’s testing and analysis.

sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca

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