Conflict of Interest

[Ratio]

Conflict of Interest do not get much more shocking than this, if you read the news article below then think about what may have actually been the driving force behind their reasons:

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December 18th 2007
Canada Reactor Back Online to Make Radioisotopes

Reuters Health

The Canadian government-owned nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, was back in service on Sunday morning and expected to begin producing medical isotopes within four days, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd said.

The National Research Reactor (NRU), which makes more than two-thirds of global supply of the radioisotopes used in cancer tests, was shut down in November for technical reasons, quickly triggering shortages.

On Wednesday, the Canadian government ordered the AECL, the government-owned nuclear technology company that operates the reactor, to restart the plant.

In spearheading the restart, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper criticized Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission boss Linda Keen for not allowing the reactor to restart earlier this month because of what she said were safety concerns.

"NRU provides medical isotopes for about 25 million diagnoses and treatments a year," David Torgerson president of AECL's research and technology division, said in a statement.

"While we recognize the importance of the reliable production of medical isotopes, our first and foremost commitment is to safety. The NRU reactor has operated safely for the past 50 years and is safer now than ever before."

When injected into the body, the isotopes give off radiation that can be seen by a camera to diagnose cancer, heart disease and other medical conditions.

Chalk River produces medical isotopes for Canadian health-care company MDS Inc and its MDS Nordion division, which is responsible for about 50 percent of world supply.

In addition to provoking shortages of medical isotopes in Canada and outside the country, the shutdown of the Chalk River reactor sparked a furious debate in parliament and changes at the AECL.

On Friday, Harper said he accepted the resignation of Michael Burns as AECL's chair of the board, effective Dec. 31.

He also announced the appointment of Glenna Carr as the new chair and Hugh MacDiarmid as chief executive officer.
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Hmmm safety concerns, firstly the Reactor did not have two backup coolant pumps that were a condition of the facility's licence were never even installed! and what kind of regulator would not shut down a potentially dangerous operation, but to have the government then re-open the facility essentially removes the power of the regulator.

What gets me is that the Head of the Health and Safety commission claimed that they had to reopen the reactor to safeguard the health and safety of the population... hmmmm

whats the bloody point! Still the UK have been doing this for years!

[Tagred]

Theres big problems in shutting down a nuclear reactor, its very hard to do and dangerous, it is also just as dangerous to start up,its a sort of damned if you do and damned if you dont situation.

The fault lies squarely with the regulators for not doing the adequate inspections during the build and comissioning of the site in my very limited information opinion

[Ratio]

Originally Posted by Tagred

The fault lies squarely with the regulators for not doing the adequate inspections during the build and comissioning of the site in my very limited information opinion

I did not think of that thats a bloody good point!
lol

[teflon]

Does Stephen Harper work for Chalk River or something? I fail to see any conflict of interest.