AECL comes up again

On February 1, 2008, this blog wondered when AECL would be privatized. We mused at that time that GE Westinghouse or Areva were being courted to pick off the best parts (read as the profitable parts).

The Cons did not want another AVRO Arrow fiasco to stain its pristine record (chuckle) so rather than shut it down they went looking for a buyer.

When the NRU went down for the gazillionth time, Areva (a French government-subsidized company supposedly connected to delivery of nuclear technology to wonderful democracies such as Iran, and Iraq) steps in to offer to help AECL (a Canadian-government subsidized company) to fix their problem. After all, isn't that what big brothers do?

The fix is in. Bye, bye, AECL and all the cash we have sunk in to it.

Privatize AECL?

I wonder if there is any truth to the rumour floating around that Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, is shopping AECL around to General Electric or even France's Areva Group? It could explain why Lunn recently jumped all over Linda Keen at CNSC and protected the asses over at AECL.

GE are biggies in the nuclear world. It makes sense that they would want AECL, considering that AECL has 22 installations around the world and all their research is paid for by the Canadian people.

It would not look too good to the GE folks if AECL was blamed for the isotope fiasco. Keen was a opportune target.

By the way, this sell off idea first surfaced in the Toronto Star back in May, 2007, well before the isotope misunderstanding.

But GE folks are not stupid. I wonder if they have used the isotope misunderstanding to get the price down or even walk away from the rotting mess.

You can be sure that Lunn and Harper will find a way to blame it on the Liberals.

The government that can't shoot straight

Jeez, when will the federal government learn that Canadians are not all stupid.

They fired Linda Keen from her post as President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission saying she was incompetent, a Liberal hack and all sorts of stupid names. This happened at 10 PM on the night before she is to testify before a Commons Committee. Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, claimed that Keen knew less about her job than he did. Sso he slammed her in the media and sent her pink slip with a comment that she must be some sort of dumb.

Finally Keen got to testify on the Hill and what does she tell us? "Nuclear reactors are in communities where Canadians live. They (Canadians) need to know that the commission will make its decision based on what's right." Sounds right to me.

She also explained that her mandate was to protect Canadians from undo risk nuclear risk. She had no mandate to make sure that MDS Nordion's (Nordion's name seldom comes up in these debates but they and their bottom line, I believe, are central to this issue!) contract with AECL for isotopes was fulfilled.

She also pointed out, backed up by her peers in many other countries, that if AECL tried to get their reactor licenced today, it would fail.

So what is new on this file to warrant another Blog entry? Well, within an hour of Keen's that could go wrong with a reactor. testimony on the Hill, Health Minister Tony Clement told the press that Keen was so dumb that she claimed that the AECL reactor was more dangerous to Canadians than is allowed by international standards.

Clement says, with a straight face I might add, "When you balance the health and safety of Canadians versus the possibility of an earthquake never seen in the Ottawa Valley in human history, she got it wrong." Notice he didn't mention anything about terrorism or even mechanical disaster, or any other of 10,000 things

"She got it wrong," Clement told reporters. Guess what, Tony. YOU got it wrong!!!

I checked the mandate of the CNSC on their web site. It reads: "The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is an independent federal government agency that regulates the use of nuclear energy and material to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy."

They fall under the the Nuclear Safety and Control Act which came into force on May 31, 2000, when it replaced the Atomic Energy Control Act. The NSC Act provides the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) with its regulatory authority. I went from one end of the CNSC site to the other and I could find nothing to suggest that the Commission was responsible for the supply of isotopes to MDS Nordion or the financial health of foreign hospitals and doctors.

The government got it wrong and rather than saying they were wrong or even just shutting up until the issue passed over... they blow of their collected mouths and try to lie their way through it.

By the way, AECL now tells us that the two emergency pumps that were the centre of this conflict initially have been connected to emergency power, as the CNSC has required. Mind you, that is the second time, AECL has told us that the work has been done. The first time was months before this murky episode broke onto the national stage. Do we believe them now?

Finally, it is important to note that Minister Clement is eminently qualified to tell Keen she was wrong because prior to being elected to the Ontario PC party in 1995, he, according to his own web site, was "... counsel to a national law firm, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty Of Law and was a small business owner." He maybe just a little short on nuclear experience but that didn't stop Harper or Lunn, now did it?

One last thing. If you want to know more about Clement's comment that there is no "possibility of an earthquake... in the Ottawa Valley in human history"; check out the map at: http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic_eq/images/caneqmap.pdf. The Ottawa Valley's pretty much saturated with small to medium quakes.

The Cons that couldn't shoot straight

Will the bush league activities of Canada's Greatest Government (TM) never cease?

One day the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is accused of playing politics (Harper calls her a Liberal hack), the next day the head of AECL is gone, then Minister (I build houses!) Lunn fires the head of the CNSC hours before she was supposed to testify on the Hill. Now three weeks after the fact the head of technology at AECL claims that CNSC never told AECL to upgrade the power back up on the NRU. This is after the AECL claimed that they told CNSC that they did the back ups as requested; apparently lying as they spoke, cause they did not do the back up power connections. I suppose that the new Chairman of the CNSC shoud be called a Conservative hack since he was appointed by Harper!

If you are confused; join the crowd! Is this anyway to run a government and especially a nuclear industry?

Can you say investigation?

Nuclear specialist Gary Lunn trumps CNSC

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn says, ""The continuing refusal of the commission, under your leadership, to prevent unreasonable risk to the health of Canadians potentially undermines public confidence in the regulation of the nuclear industry in Canada."

He is of course talking about the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the body, which reports to parliament, that is charged with safeguarding Canadians on nuclear safety.

The issue at hand is that the CNSC refused to allow a 50 year old reactor at Chalk River to be brought back on line until it was upgraded to protect against accident or terrorism.

OK, let me get this straight. The Minster is saying that the Commission's refusal to be bullied into backing down on a safety issue undermines the confidence in the nuclear industry in Canada?

I would suggest that the actions of Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) is what will cause Canadians to scratch their heads. If AECL had done the upgrades that had been recommended to them for a number of years before the incident and if Health Canada had a back up plan to protect the profits of MDS Nordion, the only client for the isotopes produced by the deficient reactor, then none of this would have happened.

Lunn is calling for the dismisal of Linda Keen, the President of the CNSC since 2001. Since all we know of her is that she is a liberal hack, according to PM Harper, I thought that it would worthwhile to check out her resume. The following is from the CNSC web site:

Linda J. Keen is an Albertan. She received her B.Sc. (honours in chemistry) and M.Sc. (agriculture sciences) from the University of Alberta. After working as a chemist, she continued her career in three science-related fields: agriculture and agri-food, mining and currently, in the nuclear area. As a certified agrologist, Ms. Keen has worked in the private sector, for the International Development Research Centre in West Africa, for the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and for a British Columbia crown corporation, Expo ’86. Her agriculture work has encompassed a variety of roles including scientific research, trade policy and international marketing, culminating as the director general of strategic planning and coordination for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. After a period of time at Industry Canada where she spearheaded its approach to Team Canada and developed the Export Source Web interface, Ms. Keen was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of Minerals and Metals at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In addition to heading the development of the Mining Sustainable Development Policy and the world-renowned CANMET laboratories, she led NRCan’s approaches to international affairs, policy and regulatory development. She was also responsible for the regulation of explosives in Canada and participated in the dual Task Forces on Risk Management and Risk Communications.

Ms. Keen was Chair of the International Nuclear Regulators Association in 2003. She was the first Canadian President of the Convention on Nuclear Safety from 2004 to 2007, which involved international peer review among its 65 signatory countries to ensure worldwide nuclear safety. Ms. Keen was also the Honorary Chair of the 2006 Women in Nuclear Conference, held in Canada for the first time, and the keynote speaker of the 2005 International Conference of Women in Science and Engineering, held in Seoul, South Korea. She speaks regularly in Canada and internationally on matters of regulatory excellence and efficiency.

Let's compare that the Gary Lunn's resume, according to the Natural Resources web site:

The Natural Resources portfolio is well suited to Minister Lunn because his early working days were spent in the mining and forestry industries in British Columbia and northern Canada. This experience has allowed him to understand first-hand the importance of Canada’s natural resources to our present and future prosperity. A certified journeyman carpenter, Minister Lunn has designed and built numerous homes, including his family’s current home in Sidney, British Columbia.

I don't know. It is too close to call, who's resume is better.

Blogger apologises to PM Harper

On December 17, 2007, I admit that I made a terrible error. Trying to be typically glib, as blogger usually are, I quipped that Canada's Greatest Government (copyright PM Harper), also known as CGG, was a little less than forthcoming on the AECL isotope controversy. I now know that I was incorrect when I gave the impression that AECL did anything improper or that the head of AECL, Michael Burns, was fired over the issue. For any reader who was offended, and I am sure there were many, by my comments; I apologize.

So let me set the record straight. Michael Burns is the greatest AECL chairman's ever. No one is, was, or will ever be, better than he. He must be, because after he left AECL, due, I am sure, to the undeserved pressure put on him (and I am certain, on his family and various household pets) by this blogger, his other company, NaiKun Wind Energy Group, was awarded $10,000,000 in grants by the CGG.

The fact that NaiKun has a Boardroom filled with well connected Cons, including two former assistants to PM Harper is just a coincidence. Anyway it is a private company and can have anyone it wants on its board! Not like that Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) that is filled with Liberal hacks according to PM Harper.

As further proof that everything is on the up and up at NaiKun, I point to their own Sara MacIntyre, who used to be a policy researcher in Harper's office when in he was Opposition Leader. One of Sara's specialities was Indian Affairs Canada (Did I mention that NaiKun is getting ready to do a big off-shore wind farm deal with the Haida peoples of BC?). She left Harper's office to become BC director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation; that dedicated group of tax-fighters that, for some reason, sprouts a huge number of Con candidates. Sara plays a selfless role in protecting the environment with NaiKun.

Enough of all that. The purpose of this entry was to apologize to Canada's Greatest Government. I stand in shame and will fully accept a teardown from John "the screamer" Baird, the federal environment minister, as my punishment.

The Nuclear Conundrum

A conundrum is defined as "an intricate and difficult problem". Such is the case with the recent series of Canadian Political Bloopers tied to AECL, CNSC, Canada's Greatest Government (copyright PM Harper) and MDS Nordion.

The Atomic Energy Commission (AECL) is a crown corporation who designs and builds nuclear reactors for distribution around the world. They also do research into reactor technology and maintains a couple of their own reactors in Chalk River, Ontario. CNSC is the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose job it is to oversee AECL and to safeguard Canadians from nuclear accidents. Canada's Greatest Government (CGG) is... well, you know who they are.

MDS Nordion used to be part of AECL until it was sold off in 1991 (Mulroney era) to Medical Data Science, an Ontario based private company. Nordion buys radioactive isotopes from AECL, refines and packages them for sale (used in mostly diagnostic imaging and some treatment) across the world. About 93% of shipments are exports from Canada, according to Nordion.

OK, now that we know the major players, let's begin the tale.

AECL has a contract to deliver isotopes to Nordion. At this time, AECL uses a 50 year old reactor called the NRU for this job. This is the only job assigned to the NRU. Problem is that the NRU has some problems, including: in case of earthquake or terrorist attack, the NRU's cooling waters could leak out and set off a chain reaction that could wipe out multiple square miles of land and people, al la Chernobyl. Well, why not fix the reactor, you ask? Enter the CNSC.

The CNSC has been trying to get AECL to fix the problems for a couple of years but AECL keeps putting it off. In November of this year, AECL shuts down the reactor for some maintenance (not including the CNSC-required fixes) and CNSC jumps on the time frame and demands that AECL implement the fixes or they will not be re-licenced (another role of the CNSC) to bring the reactor back on line. In steps MDS Nordion.

With the reactor down, the supply of isotope flowing to Nordion begins to dwindle. Some of these isotopes have shelf lives of only days. MDS Nordion, and its customers, is crying that people are dying world wide because procedures and treatment are being delayed and cancelled due the shortages. In steps CGG.

"Safety be damned," bellows the government. "The CNSC are just a bunch of Liberal hacks, anyway," they continue to bray. "Get the reactor back on line and get those isotopes flowing!"

Yippee! The government, whose benches must be filled with nuclear scientists, as well as multiple space cadets, has come to the rescue of the downtrodden and the dying! All hail the CGG!

But hang on a bit... there seems a little bit more to this than meets the press. Seems that the problem is not the NRU or the CNSC, the problem is more to do with Nordion and AECL.

When MDS bought Nordion from AECL, the Mulroney government decided that, to sweeten the deal, two new reactors were to be built by AECL, to replace the ageing NRU. As part of the deal, the new reactors would be owned by Nordion! As well, AECL would look after (store, really) the waste products of the isotope production. AECL embarked on a plan to build the two new reactors called Maple for Nordion. Long story short - the Maples don't produce sap... they do not work. AECL has designed a reactor that is inherently unsafe and, having recognized that, Nordion sued the government, received $10 million in compensation and AECL had to take over ownership of the Maples.

So let's get this straight. AECL decides that they do not need to perform the safety upgrades to its NRU reactor in order to comply with the licence they have from the CNSC, the commission whose job it is to ensure that nuclear safety is job #1 at AECL. AECL are using the 50 year old NRU to deliver on their contract because the replacement reactors they designed do not work. Nordion and their customers complain when the reactor remains off line, with a campaign of "shock and ouch"! (It is never mentioned that a major complaint by Nordion is that their fourth quarter profit is taking a hit.) CGG steps up to the table and declares that they know better than the CNSC and the Liberal hacks that run it. (No mention is made of the fact that the head of the CNSC claims that she has no political affiliation and that before heading CNSC she has an illustrious career in the public service.) The NRU must come on line without its upgrades and start producing money making... oops, I mean, life saving isotopes for MDS Nordion.

Wow, that CGG! What a bunch of take-charge people. They put those stupid CNSC people in their place and then...

They fired the head of AECL.