Dismissal of CNSC Chair Linda Keen
In November 2007, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), acting upon the advice of the CNSC that it was in violation of its site operating licence for Chalk River Laboratories (CRL), voluntarily chose to extend a routine shutdown of the NRU nuclear reactor pending completion of safety upgrades. The issue involved two of NRU's eight coolant pumps which, upon completion of several safety upgrades, would be credited as being able to withstand severe external hazards such as a major earthquake. Before and after the awarding of CRL's October 2006 operating license fo CRL, AECL reported that these two pumps had not yet been connected to a seismically-qualifed backup power supply (separate from NRU's normal backup power supplies); however, in November 2007 this fact was recognized by the CNSC as evidence of a license violation, leading AECL to extend the NRU's maintenance shutdown until the seismically-qualified backup power connection could be completed. These two pumps which are connected to a backup power supply are the last line of defence in the event of an earthquake or other primary power system failure in order to prevent a Fukushima-style meltdown of the reactor.
The extended shutdown created a shortage of medical radioisotopes of which Canada produces about 60 per cent of the world's supply. CNSC required that a safety case be made, as per its mandate, to modify AECL’s license in order to allow it to operate the NRU reactor with a single pump connected to seismically qualified backup power supplies, but AECL's submission was not accepted by the CNSC.
Parliament passed emergency legislation overriding the “independent” regulator CNSC on the issue of the two pumps at NRU, winning all-party support to order the reactor to be restarted, and NRU resumed operations on December 16, 2007.
Subsequently, federal Conservative Energy and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn indicated in a letter that he wished to fire CNSC chair Linda Keen over the matter. The Ottawa Citizen obtained and published Lunn's letter to Keen on January 8, 2008. Keen responded by going public with her own questioning of Lunn, publishing a letter on CNSC's website on January 9 and requesting the Police and the Privacy Commissioner investigate the leaking of in-confidence documentation.
Auditor General Sheila Fraser, acting upon a request from Keen, had investigated AECL's situation, and issued a report to AECL's board of directors in late August 2007, indicating also that Lunn, who oversees AECL at the political level, should be informed. Fraser's report pinpointed serious government funding deficiencies for AECL, which had held back necessary expansion, upgrading, and replacement of its facilities. Opposition politicians defended Keen, called for Lunn to be fired, and for the report to be made public.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper backed Lunn, (http://www.theglobeandmail.com, January 10, 2008) and Linda Keen was dismissed as chair of the CNSC at 10pm January 15 - 12 hours before she was to appear before a parliamentary committee. She remained a member of the CNSC board until December 2008.
On January 29, 2008, the former President of the CNSC, Linda Keen, testified before the House Standing Committee on Natural Resources that the risk of fuel failure in the NRU reactor was "1 in 1000", and claimed this risk to be a thousand times greater than the "international standard of one in one million". These claims were challenged by AECL.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Famous quotes containing the words chair and/or keen:
“Come leave the loathed stage,
And the more loathsome age,
Where pride and impudence in faction knit
Usurp the chair of wit:
Indicting and arraigning every day,
Something they call a play.
Let their fastidious, vain
Commission of the brain,
Run on and rage, sweat, censure, and condemn:
They were not made for thee, less thou for them.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“A sense of humour keen enough to show a man his own absurdities as well as those of other people will keep a man from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)