Job description for nuclear watchdog to specify isotope supply, Lunn says.

This so totally absurd it is almost beyond belief. Of course MDS Nordion is not even mentioned in this article an almost standard omission in mainstream articles. Now the person in charge of safety also is charged with ensuring the production of isotopes. These duties come into conflict as the present case shows. It is clear which duty is given priority: the production of isotopes. This is the obligation that ensures that MDS Nordion does not face isotope shortages and profit loss again or if it does there will be a hefty lawsuit to recover lost profits.


Job description for nuclear watchdog to specify isotope supply, Lunn says
MURRAY LANGDON AND GLORIA GALLOWAY

Globe and Mail Update

January 18, 2008 at 11:06 PM EST

VICTORIA, OTTAWA — The federal government will specify in writing that the next president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission must ensure the production of an adequate supply of medical isotopes, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said yesterday.

The job description of the person who is given the five-year mandate to head the commission will explicitly state that the isotopes, which are used in a wide range of diagnostic tests and procedures, are his or her responsibility, Mr. Lunn told reporters after a local funding announcement in the British Columbia capital.

“We will be giving a mandate letter to the new person and it will be very clear, the importance of the medical isotopes,” the minister said.

Linda Keen was fired as CNSC president late Tuesday night after months of conflict with the government, including her refusal to approve a restart of a nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., that produces much of the continent's supply of the isotopes.

Ms. Keen had said that Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that owns the reactor, was in violation of its licence agreement after failing to make required safety upgrades.

The reactor was out of service for about a month before Parliament enacted emergency legislation to override the commission – but not before the supply of isotopes was dramatically reduced and doctors were forced to ration tests.

“Obviously, we don't want this situation to happen ever again and we'll be taking all steps to make sure that we're not put in this position again,” Mr. Lunn said.

The minister said he believes the Canadian Nuclear Safety and Control Act implies that the commission is responsible for ensuring the flow of medical isotopes. Under the statute, he said, the role of the CNSC president “is to balance risks, including health and safety of Canadians and so, it's there you know, as part of the overall mandate.”

However, Mr. Lunn was non-committal when asked if he would enshrine the job of protecting the isotope supply in new or updated legislation.

Theresa McClenaghan, the executive director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, an environmental lobby group, said she believes the nuclear control act would have to be changed if the commission were to become responsible for ensuring the flow of isotopes.

And that would muddy the responsibility of the regulator, whose job it is to make sure that reactors are run safely, with “why do they want to operate reactors, which is an entirely different question,” Ms. McClenaghan said.

Ms. Keen has been replaced on an interim basis by Michael Binder, a senior civil servant in the federal Industry Department. It is unclear how long it will take to name Ms. Keen's actual successor.

The CNSC refused to comment yesterday on the minister's suggestion that the responsibility for the isotopes would be written into the job description.

Commission documents say the regulator was “taken by surprise” by a government directive issued in early December that required it to “take into account the health of Canadians who, for medical purposes, depend on nuclear substances produced by nuclear reactors.” Ms. Keen immediately requested a legal opinion, the documents say.

Spelling out that the regulator is actually responsible for the supply of isotopes would seem to take that directive a step further.

Catherine Bell, the NDP natural resources critic, said yesterday that if the government believes it must change the mandate of the CNSC president, it is obvious that Ms. Keen did not have responsibility for guaranteeing the supply of isotopes.

“This is the proof,” Ms. Bell said. “If it was there, then he doesn't need to write it in now.”

And that means, Ms. Bell said, that “they don't have just cause” for firing Ms. Keen. Murray Langdon's report is special to The Globe and Mail