I’m sure every Canadian knows about the Chalk River reactor. It produces most of the world’s radioactive isotopes. It’s closed, meaning that hundreds of thousands of medical diagnostic procedures have been put on hold.
The Conservative government, with opposition support, has ordered the reactor to restart for 120 days to produce these needed isotopes.
Troll around the web, read statements from the opposition and you’ll see a lot of talk about the Tories ignoring the experts and making this a ‘partisan issue’. Some examples:
MP Ignatieff in Parliament Tuesday:
“Since when is the Prime Minister of Canada an expert on nuclear safety?”
Liberal MP Omar Alghabra, Mississauga-Erindale, accused the government of undermining Canada’s nuclear regulator and following the advice of “partisan hacks” in its decision to reopen the reactor.
But look hard enough and you can find the experts. They’re out there and are clear - and they are saying that the reactor is safe and that the politicization of this began with the shutdown:
Here’s a comment that wasn’t often heard - this from one of the experts:
I designed and installed safety equipment needed for startup of Pickering, Gentilly, Taiwan, and Karachi nuclear reactors under Canadian Simtec Industries Ltd. contracts. I have designed much safety equipment still in use in NRU Chalk River, Douglas Point and Bruce Nuclear reactors. The main safety problems are based on risk probabilities and are easily understood tradeoffs even by a schoolchild. The shutdown of NRU was a political act without concern for the worldwide obligations due to the unique capabilities of the NRU reactor. The Canadian government needs to replace some of the bureaucrats that ignored the long-term maintenance requirements written into the NRU licence to operate.
Ernest Semple, (former) Chief Engineer for Simtec Industries Limited, Dollard-des-Ormeaux
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