Canada’s minister of Natural Resources manages both the nuclear industry leader Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and its regulator Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

Purged of Linda Keen’s leadership and otherwise chilled by Stephen Harper and his Natural Resources minister Gary Lunn, CNSC marketed its excoriated regulation in a problematic 10 April 2008 media release #08-11 "CNSC resumes full regulatory oversight of NRU reactor" from CNSC’s senior adviser for media and community relations Aurele Gervais. The communiqué trumpets regulatory achievements at AECL’s contentious National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Ontario:

"The reactor is operating safely and CNSC and AECL staff have agreed on a way forward through more effective regulatory compliance …"

Harper’s Cabinet pushed Bill C-38 through a nocturnal Parliament on 12 December 2007, removing CNSC regulation from NRU for 120 days until 10 April 2008.

In November 2007, CNSC inspectors discovered NRU license violations and major equipment vulnerabilities, concluding that NRU did not meet CNSC’s earthquake resistance standard.

In my 11 April 2008 Rabble article “Safety Second at Chalk River nuclear reactor?”, I reported Keen's demotion and the invective published by AECL’s nucleonics peers against chronic AECL mal-operations she most recently and tenaciously sought to control.

Nuclear Engineering International’s Canadian correspondent David Mosey, formerly an Ontario Power Generation nuclear engineer and author of NEI’s book Nuclear Accidents, argued in February that if the radioisotopes produced by AECL and its mediconuclear partner MDS Nordion are so important, "then it is somewhat puzzling that at no time has anyone - AECL, MDS Nordion, or the relevant government ministry taken steps to ensure continuity of supply, or even to raise the issue."

MDS Nordion is the isotope division of MDS Inc., known in many communities as a purveyor of medical laboratory services.

According to Toronto Globe and Mail’s energy reporter Shawn McCarthy, "AECL’s problems both with its Maple reactor and its advanced Candu reactor technology could undermine the government’s attempt to attract private buyers for the troubled nuclear company … Maple reactors were supposed to replace the Chalk River [NRU] reactor to maintain Canada’s dominance in the medical isotope market. But last month, with Ottawa’s approval, AECL cancelled the Maple project after tests failed to provide a solution to a serious design flaw that raised the risk of a meltdown." (6 June 2008)

Mosey labelled NRU "a particularly scandalous point in one of the most lamentable fiascos in the history of the Canadian nuclear industry."

Even under Keen, CNSC strangely downplayed AECL’s dangerous blunders.

“SMALL FIRE AT CHALK RIVER”

Misleadingly reporting a very dangerous type of radiological accident, Gervais opted gratuitously to headline CNSC’s 5 May 2006 news release #06-11: "Small Fire at AECL’s Chalk River Laboratories".

Moments after the previous day’s accident, AECL itself called the blaze an "emergency incident", but in no sense a "small fire."

CNSC could have inserted in its headline the basic qualifier "reported," and thus might plausibly have headlined:

"Small Fire reported at AECL’s Chalk River Laboratories".

Neglect of this essential qualification reflects CNSC’s routine cover-up for AECL, and wreaks skepticism on Gervais’ platitudinous 10 April 2008 communique alleging "safe" NRU operations.

Such incest between CNSC and AECL is rooted in their longterm common reporting to Parliament through ministers like Gary Lunn.

Liberal Natural Resources critic Omar Alghabra, Mississaugua-Erindale, in mid-April told me he advocates removing from the NRCan minister responsibility and accountability for CNSC.

ALGHABRA ATTACKS HARPER, ADVOCATES NUCLEAR SAFETY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Posts on OmarAlghabra.ca detail Alghabra’s interpellations of the Chalk River Parliamentary crisis:

11 December 2007

Alghabra: "Will the minister or the Prime Minster for that matter tell Canadians what will happen if there is a nuclear accident? Who will be responsible? Will it be the Prime Minister?"

Harper: "…there will be no nuclear accident …"

28 January 2008

Alghabra: "They [Harper and Lunn] fired her [Linda Keen] without providing cause. They fired her in the dark of night before she was to testify before a committee. Obviously they do not want her to tell Canadians the truth."

15 May 2008

Alghabra: "Today the government announced that it is shutting down the Maple reactor program at AECL … Considering the isotope shortage crisis that the government created earlier this year, how can it tell us that the decision would not have a negative impact on the longterm supply of the medical isotopes?"

Lunn: "I am surprised that the Liberals are … asking this question. The [Maple] project began 12 years ago under their leadership."

Alghabra: "I am surprised the minister is here answering questions. I hope he does not disappear like he did last time."

Liberal critic for Democratic Reform Brian Murphy vigorously reinforced Alghabra.

A 1 May 2008 Liberal.ca media release bewailed: "…the Conservatives have fired the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Linda Keen, they have consistently undermined the Canadian Wheat Board, and have caused the resignation of former Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro, and former Access to Information Commissioner John Reid."

Murphy inquired: "Why is [Harper] always on the attack against people who are just doing their jobs and serving the Canadian public?"

Earlier, NDP.ca reported: "NDP Natural Resources Critic Catherine Bell (Vancouver Island North) has tabled a bill to eliminate the ministerial conflict of interest over the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission."

Bell warned: "The minister of Natural Resources has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to balance nuclear safety with the promotion of the nuclear industry."

Stephen Salaff is a Toronto-based freelance environment and public health writer. He recently published "Saskatchewan moves from carbon capture to nuclear" in Carbon Capture Journal.