Nuclear safety head blasts 'interference'

This article as with most on this subject conveniently leave out any mention of MDS Nordion the giant health care company that markets the isotopes. It would be improper for AEC to make any money. It is proper only for it to help private for profit companies make money. With the shut down of the Chalk River reactor Nordion's isotope profits were also shut down. This is a taboo subject. What is important is all those who need the isotopes and the gallant government steps that over-ruled safety concerns to restart the flow of isotopes for needed tests-and of course just coincidentally and by the by help out Nordion restart its profit reactor.
This is from the National Post. I posted an article on MDS Nordion earlier.
Nuclear safety head blasts 'interference'
Minister Accused

Ian Macleod, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 09, 2008



OTTAWA - Linda Keen is accusing Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn of improper interference in the affairs of her independent and quasi-judicial nuclear safety commission, and wants a public inquiry to defend her handling of the Chalk River medical isotope crisis.

In a caustic letter, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) president yesterday told Mr. Lunn his threat to fire her over the affair is "entirely without merit," challenges him to provide evidence of her misconduct, vows to serve out her term and reminds him that the Supreme Court of Canada has "consistently held that the principles of fundamental justice require quasi-judicial tribunals to be free from political influence or interference."

His actions in the affair, particularly a Dec. 8 phone call between the two and Mr. Lunn's letter are, she writes, "examples of improper interference with both the institutional independence of the CNSC and with the administration of justice," and could have a "significant chilling effect … on the practices and decisions of other tribunals who are responsible for important work on behalf of Canadians."

Her outburst follows the Ottawa Citizen's publication on Tuesday of a Dec. 27 letter from Mr. Lunn to Ms. Keen in which he accuses her of jeopardizing public health and confidence in nuclear safety; questions her fundamental judgment and leadership; and threatens to have Cabinet fire her.

He accused her of not heeding a Dec. 10 Cabinet directive to "take into account the health of Canadians who, for medical purposes, depend on nuclear substances produced by nuclear reactors." Her eight-page response, which she says she was compelled to make public after the newspaper revealed Mr. Lunn's letter, lays into Mr. Lunn, through whom the CNSC reports to Parliament, in a manner rarely seen between a senior bureaucrat and a federal minister.

"The manner in which you have sought to approach these issues," writes Ms. Keen, "highlights a significant misunderstanding of the relationship between yourself and the CNSC. "Neither the CNSC nor its president are obliged to report to you on the status of particular licensing matters before the CNSC."

Mr. Lunn's office issued a terse response: "Parliament took steps to address the immediate situation and it is now appropriate for the government to examine the options at its disposal to address the underlying issues that led to the situation in the first place.

"In that regard, the government wrote to the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on December 27, 2007, seeking her views."

Ms. Keen's indictment of Mr. Lunn's actions come amid revelations that even Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. believed it was "safe and prudent" to keep its Chalk River nuclear reactor shut until a "critical" safety upgrade was completed.

At a Dec. 6 emergency meeting between AECL and CNSC officials, AECL's senior vice-president and chief nuclear officer for the Chalk River Laboratories sided with the commission's concern.

Yet five days later, amid a shortage of isotopes to diagnose cancer and cardiac disease, the Harper government overruled the commission.

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