[getsmart-l] UNPRECEDENTED!!!

[23 Skidoo]

The Chalk River, Ontario nuclear reactor is about to make nuclear history! And of course for this unprecedented event we need to thank the enduring efforts of Health Minister Tony Clement and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn and the transnational corporate puppeteers above forcing them to allow Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) to restart this nuclear facility despite the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commissions concerns for an ongoing scheduled shutdown and refurbishment for SAFETY REASONS! 
 
AECL will now basically regulate itself! 
Wow! 
Pro-nuke advocates have always tried to placate our fears by suggesting that the operators are subject to stringent rules regulations and the proper checks and balances which will at all times be the first and foremost of their priorities and therefore something the public can ultimately count upon. You just got to wonder what these architects of nuclear madness have in mind when it comes to the risk assessment of this and other dangerous nuclear projects in the province of Ontario and indeed all of Canada for that matter? What we know is that the evaluation of risk to human health and the environment from chemical hazards is built on methods for assessing the dose response of radionuclides in the 1950s. Despite a shared background, however, societal events, often in the form of legislation, have obviously affected the development path for risk assessment for human health, producing dissimilarities between these risk assessments and those for nuclear facilities. We stress here that an important difference is the regulator's interest in accounting for uncertainty. 
In our humble opinion the world today is a much more dangerous place than it was yesterday, and all because of our Conservative government and its unchallenged in bed status with those transnational corporations which rely on these isotopes produced at the Chalk River facility to do their work and keep their gigantic money tree growing at all costs despite safety concerns of an official nuclear regulatory body. 
Is anybody fucking paying attention as they sneak this past us during this festive season because this is nothing short of complete madness and nothing to celebrate to say the least! 
 
Film at 11:00
***
 
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/284230 
Get reactor running again, Ministers urge 
Dec 10, 2007 06:01 PM Tanya Talaga Health Reporter 
As hospital officials scramble to identify alternative sources of a crucial radioactive material used to diagnose and treat cancer patients, two federal government ministers fired off a letter to the head of the nuclear safety commission urging it to get the Chalk River reactor online.  Over the weekend, the University Health Network received a generator from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which allowed them to supply the Hospital for Sick Children, Mount Sinai, Women's College and themselves with the required radiopharmaceuticals to handle the required diagnostics. Medical isotopes, made from uranium-derived molybdenum-99, are injected into patients before they receive a nuclear imaging test.  The UHN, comprised of Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret hospitals, can supply most of the isotopes to those same hospitals Tuesday, but they don't have a supply confirmed for after that, said Fiona Hill the Network's senior public affairs advisor.  Cancer Care Ontario, the body in charge of cancer services throughout the province, has made contact with all cancer hospitals to convey a suggested list of treatment priorities and alternatives.  "There are a number of centres and regions that have run short of supply," said Terry Sullivan, CCO's president and CEO. "For cancer, our key priorities are related to sentinel lymph node biopsies (for breast cancer treatment) and staging for the disease." There are alternative diagnostic tests that can be used, Sullivan said.  "We are in the process now of confirming who has a supply and who doesn't," he said. "There are a number of hospitals that continue to have a modest supply from American and European suppliers."  Health Minister Tony Clement and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn issued a joint statement Monday saying they have been working to solve the shortage of medical isotopes caused by the extended shutdown at the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. reactor in Chalk River.  To that end, the "government has confirmed the parts and equipment required to complete the upgrade maintenance on the Chalk River facility has been expedited" and Health Canada is contacting 800 hospitals and clinics to assess their situations.  And in a letter to Linda Keen, president of the nuclear safety commission, they said: "We believe it is imperative for you, in the context of your current powers, to ensure that the health and safety of all Canadians is taken into account in the decisions as to when to re-start the NRU (National Research Universal reactor)."  It was taken off line on Nov. 18 so the electrical system could be fixed. The plan was to restart on Nov. 23 but that never happened because the nuclear safety commission discovered significant safety upgrades had not been carried out by AECL, in violation of the NRU operating licence. Specifically, pumps designed to cool the reactor in the event of an earthquake were not hooked up to an emergency power supply.  The Ottawa-based supplier of the radioactive material said the shortage could last until January. Chalk River is one of the leading global isotope suppliers. Not only are patients in Canada in limbo, but nuclear medicine doctors across the globe are also left in a lurch.  For every month of disrupted supply, nearly 10,000 patients in Ontario are affected, according to the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine.  On Parliament Hill Monday, MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park) said that in 2005 the Liberal government was alerted by then Ottawa Centre MP Ed Broadbent to the very serious concerns about missing safety procedures and quality assurance at the Chalk River nuclear program.  "Now nearly 24 months later, the world is facing a critical isotope shortage due to the serious errors made at Chalk River," she said.  The government and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission clearly failed to respond and now the site has been shut down, causing diagnostic equipment to go dark around the world, said Nash  "When will the minister launch a probe into why these warnings were ignored?" she asked.  Lunn said the government's first priority is to ensure the quick production of the isotopes.  "We have also made available all government assets, if we can expedite this at all, to ensure that these radioisotopes come back online as soon as possible," he said. With files from Rob Ferguson, Bruce Campion-Smith 
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