The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) says it has addressed all issues raised in an October 2016 government report, which criticised CNSC inspections. The report, by the office of the auditor-general, said the commission could not show that proper procedures were always followed during NPP inspections. This had led to “inconsistencies, gaps in documentation, and missed opportunities for identifying improvements in conducting inspections”. The report added: “We also found that CNSC did not provide clear guidance to its inspectors about which information they should retain in inspection files once the final inspection reports were complete.” Because some information was not retained, CNSC could not show that inspection reports “fully and accurately” reflected observations made during inspections. CNSC rarely used the information gathered during inspections to conduct lessons-learned exercises that could identify ways to improve its site inspections, the report said. CNSC said that as of 31 March, all five recommendations made in the report had been completed. Canada has 19 reactor units in commercial operation accounting for about 16% of electricity production.
