Why the Conservatives really fired nuclear watchdog Linda Keen?

When the Conservatives sacked Nuclear Safety Commission head Linda Keen it seemed it all had to do with nuclear safety and medical isoptopes. Keen was erring on the side of safety by ordering the Chalk River reactor shut down for safety reasons, the government wanted her to ignore the safety concerns to ensure the continued production of isotopes, required for many important medical procedures. She refused to back down, and she was canned.

That's a disturbing enough story, but Greg Weston reports in the Sun today there may have been even more to it:

When the Conservative government fired the country's nuclear watchdog last year, a few well-connected lobbyists toasted her demise as a victory potentially worth millions to their clients.

(snip)

But behind the scenes, industry insiders say lobbyists had long been trying to get rid of Keen for reasons that had nothing to do with medicine. Their clients were companies that stand to make huge money from the next generation of Canadian nuclear power reactors called the Advanced Candu, or ACR-1000. Rightly or wrongly, it seems, the iron-fisted Keen was getting in the way.

Playing games with nuclear safety in the name of medical isoptopes isn't a decision I'd make, but you could make a case. But potentially playing games with nuclear safety so well-connected lobbyists can line their pockets? That is completely unacceptable.

Cathie has more.

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A radioactive situation

With the Harper government's firing last year of nuclear regulatory boss Linda Keen for daring to put safety first and raise questions about the operation of the Chalk River nuclear reactor, it seems that economy and the production of medical isoptoes has won out over basic questions of nuclear safety.

Reading this article about a recent radioactive spill at Chalk River, which is operating at double its normal output to produce isotopes with a plant in Holland offline, I've lost track of just how many scary and concerning revelations are contained in this piece. But I'll try to list the major ones.

* A RADIOACTIVE SPILL HAS OCCURRED at the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor west of the capital after the facility was recently cranked up to double its normal output of medical isotopes, used in diagnosing and treating cancer, Sun Media has learned.

* Nonetheless, after a brief shutdown, the reactor has operate at full power, even though Chalk River officials admit they don't know what caused the leak, and say it could happen again.

* Documents indicate officials at Atomic Energy took four days to report the spill to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

* Even then, the spill proved to be five times larger than what the officials initially reported.

* They didn't go out of their way to inform the public, either. A news release about the brief shutdown of the reactor in December made no mention of a spill, only "unanticipated technical challenges."

* Meanwhile, another part of the reactor has sprung a water leak from a six centimetre crack in a weld. That leak has still not been repaired since it was first reported more than six weeks ago.

* Atomic energy spokesman Dale Coffin says the crack in the seam could require up to a month of work to repair, "but right now our schedule doesn't allow us to do that."

When it comes to nuclear reactors, isn't it sensible to err on the side of safety? All I can say is, I wouldn't want to live near Chalk River.

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