Unclear allegiance

[ewt]

So. There's a nuclear reactor at Chalk River, near-ish Ottawa (200km away, which is near-ish by Canajan standards). One of the things it produces is high-grade medical isotopes.

It was in breach of some safety regulations. It shut down for maintenance, and Linda Keen, head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, told it to STAY shut down until the other stuff was sorted. This caused some problems.

Now she's been sacked, and the media are portraying this as being because shutting down the reactor endangered lives due to the resulting shortage of certain isotopes.

This is a load of codswallop. Yes, there was a shortage for a bit, but other reactors around the world adapted and started making more of those isotopes.

I propose that Linda Keen hasn't been sacked because of the medical isotopes shortage, she's been sacked because of the resulting loss of economic monopoly on those isotopes. I mean, we don't give the damn things away for free, folks.

Discuss.

Comments

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

I can't read the full article http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19726402.600-editorial-dont-mess-with-nuclear-safety.html.
A quick search turns up, for example, http://www.pentictonherald.ca/CP_stories.php?id=78657 (not that one can rely on the facts in a newspaper story, sadly).

Generally, I'd be for shutting down a dodgy reactor and sorting out the mess as a priority. The effect was a delay in tests, but though there is much fuss about seriously-ill patients, I didn't find evidence that the delay caused any life-threatening problems, and indeed the isotopes were quickly sourced elsewhere. Note that this reactor produced "half the world's supply"(http://flacklife.blogspot.com/2007/12/dr-william-leiss-on-medical-isotopes.html), so it wasn't the only source. That post, incidentally, looks like good information. There's a possibility he may be a little biased but he has the inside knowledge.

Looks like the episode had a useful effect in support of better and more localised supplies - http://www.advancedmedicalisotopes.com/ - which probably doesn't make MDS Nordion happy.

Overall, I think you may be correct in your proposal.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

A shortage for a bit is still important to people who need tests and chemo NOW. It's quite difficult to move radioisotopes from one place to another and certainly not quick.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Though I think closing it would have been better, if it was operating dangerously, the potential disaster from that would create FAR more problems than not having the medical isotopes.

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

Yup. Them in Charge aren't nearly as blasé as fifty years ago about nuclear safety, but they are still too damned blasé for me. Most of the housing around Sizewell is rural slums - does that say anything?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Daughter Dearest,

The problem is one of half life as well as the specialized equipment need to made the isotopes. The Chalk River reactor is well beyond its "best before date" and should have been shut down over a decade ago. No one wants a new reactor built in their "back yard". Politicians do what is expedient, and what gets them reelected. If Chalk River was to be proposed today, given the current climate towards things nuclear, permission would never be granted.

On another topic fully 13% of Canada's electrical supply is now from Nuclear, 18% from Coal, 0.2% from wind and 3.8 percent from "other sources". The rest is Hydro--but that has "hidden pollution" as well and is certainly not carbon neutral.

There is unfortunately more "radiation fall out" introduced by burning coal than by the Nuclear plants.

If I lived in Ontario I could install solar panels and have a "pay back" period of a little over three years. Where I live now the "pay back" is about fifty years, so it is not economic to consider it.

As I live in a small city I can't build a Stuart windmill because I can't erect a tower. I am unable to find a Savonius rotor that could be mounted on my roof--they all appear to be vapor ware, or so large that I can't accommodate one.

I will in the next two years install some solar and keep on hoping that a roof top wind machine will become available.

I'd love to have an electric car--and there is one produced in Canada that is Federally "street legal". Unfortunately, in Saskatchewan, there is no legislation in place to allow it to be licensed.

I feel very strongly that all Nuclear plants are "accidents waiting to happen".

Dismissal of Nuclear Safety Commission Chairman

[(Anonymous)]

The woman did NOT do what she was mandated to do.
Clearly she precipitated a world wide shortage of nuclear medical isotopes whihc like a series of dominoes set her job at risk.
If someone in our family needed those isotopes I wonder if the story would be different.
There are no Canadian laws setting the standard - she brought in international standards and made her decisions on standards which do not have any jurisdiction in Canada
We have not heard the end of this one for sure.
Bert