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2008

Tuesday 04 November 2008 BEIJING: CANADA, CHINA IN NUCLEAR ACCORD
Canada's nuclear agency has signed an agreement with three Chinese institutions. Atomic Energy of Canada says the agreement is to develop jointly technology for the use of uranium recovered from the spent fuel of light-water reactors in China, which will then be used in the Canadian CANDU reactors in China located near Shanghai. The planned program will involve scientists and engineers from Canada and China. Canadian officials say the CANDU nuclear technology has the potential to make a major contribution to reducing China's dependence on imported nuclear fuel resources

Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Opponents of Quebec's nuclear plans get fired up
Dozens of prominent Quebec artists, scientists and media personalities joined about 60 environmental...

Tuesday 30 September 2008 Mixed views on new nuclear build
Residents living near existing UK nuclear power stations only have "qualified support" for new reactors, a study shows.

Tuesday 30 September 2008 France, India sign major nuclear deal
France and India on Tuesday signed a landmark nuclear...

Sunday 28 September 2008 The United States and India have moved one step closer to formalizing a controversial deal on U.S. civilian nuclear technology. The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed the deal that lifts a three decade-old ban on nuclear trade with India. The agreement was passed by 298-117. The deal will head to the U.S. Senate for its vote. Some U.S. legislators oppose the deal because India has refused to sign the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Saturday 20 September 2008 TORONTO: PROVINCE WOULD GET FOUR NEW REACTORS
The Bruce Power partnership has proposed the construction of four new nuclear reactors at already the world's largest nuclear station and radioactive-waste facility at Kincardine on the shore of Lake Huron. Bruce submitted two years' worth of scientific and social analysis to a three-member review panel. If the four reactors were permitted, Kincardine would provide 4,000 megawatts of electricity by 2016. The Bruce partnership Cameco Corp., TransCanada Corp. and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

Friday 12 September 2008 Mourning an exemption that may defeat the rules
FOR India’s embattled prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and America’s soon-to-depart president, George Bush, the waiver for India agreed on September 6th by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is meant to build a lasting legacy: their own. Critics fear its real testament will be lasting damage to the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Hitherto NSG rules barred nuclear commerce with any country that had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or had not put all its nuclear industry under safeguards operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear guardian. India, which rejects the NPT and has built and tested bombs, will do neither. Instead, in return for the NSG waiver it has merely promised to separate out some designated “civilian” nuclear reactors (the list has still to be formalised) for inspection.

Thursday 11 September 2008 No More Bomb-Making, but Work Aplenty
The federal government plans to spent the foreseeable future cleaning up after the world’s first major nuclear reactor, which was designated a national historic landmark last month

Tuesday 09 September 2008 UNITED STATES
The United States has cancelled a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia in a move seen is comment by the Bush administration on Russia's conflict with Georgia. The agreement received U.S. congressional approval last May. It allowed extensive and unprecedented cooperation between the two countries. On the same day, Russia announced that it was establishing diplomatic relations with Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia's move came less than two weeks after Russia recognized the territories' independence. Russia says that its troops will withdraw from Georgian territory outside South Ossetia and Abkazhia next month after the deployment of European monitors. Georgia, meanwhile, accused Russia of committing human rights violations against ethnic Georgians in the breakaway regions. Addressing the United Nations highest court in The Hague, Georgia maintained that hundreds of thousands of its nationals were persecuted and driven from their homes. The International Court of Justice is holding three days of emergency hearings.

Tuesday 09 September 2008 OTTAWA: CANADA WELCOMES NUCLEAR GROUP'S DECISION
Canada has welcomed India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers' Group. The group granted its approval this past weekend. Membership is crucial for India to buy nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to power its booming economy. Canada's foreign affairs minister, David Emerson, says that India is a responsible democracy that shares Canada's fundamental values of freedom and respect for the rule of law. Some nations opposed allowing India to join the Group because India is not a member of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The Nuclear Suppliers' Group consists of 45 countries, including Canada, that establish guidelines for nuclear and nuclear-related exports.

Sunday 07 September 2008 Atomic Club Votes to End Restrictions on India
The worldwide body that regulates the sale of nuclear fuel and technology approved a landmark deal on Saturday to allow India to engage in nuclear trade for the first time in three decades.

Saturday 06 September 2008 Isotope shortage may delay scans
Hundreds of important NHS hospital tests could be put on hold due to a worldwide shortage of a radioactive isotope.
Three of the five reactors which produce molybdenum-99 have been shut down, severely reducing the amount available.

Monday 01 September 2008 Going nuclear
If the opposition CDU comes to office in Germany expect an expanded role for nuclear power

Wednesday 20 August 2008 MONTREAL: NUCLEAR REACTOR GETS NEW LEASE ON LIFE
The Quebec government has announced that it will upgrade the province's only nuclear reactor. The Gentilly-2 plant located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River halfway between Montreal and Quebec City produces only about three per cent of the province's energy output, most of the rest being generated by hydro-electric power. The government says it will spend $1.9 billion to prolong its operation until 2040. Public hearings held in 2004 and 2005 on the plant's future led to a recommendation that the government settle on a long-term plan for dealing with radioactive waste before extending its lifespan.

Saturday 09 August 2008 BRAMPTON: HOLY WAR PLOT CALLED FANTASY
The trial of a 20-year-old Toronto-area man charged with participation in a terrorism conspiracy is drawing to a close, his lawyer making closing arguments. He is one of 18 people arrested two summers ago as members of a homegrown terrorist plot and accused of intending to attack Parliament Hill, to murder politicians and to attack nuclear power plants and the RCMP headquarters in Ottawa. The young man's lawyer says the Crown hasn't proved that the group constituted a real terrorist cell. The lawyer claimed as well that even if one of its leaders intended harm, his client wasn't aware of it because the ringleader hid his real intentions. The prosecution has averred that the accused attended camps intended as preparation for the planned attacks. Charges against seven of those arrested have been suspended or dropped.

OTTAWA: GOVT. SUPPORT ASKED FOR ONTARIO NUCLEAR BID
The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that Corwn corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and private engineering giant SNC-Lavalin want billions of dollars of federal funding to support their bid to build two nuclear reactors in Ontario. The newspaper cites a letter by SNC-Lavalin Nuclear President Patrick Lamarre to Natural Resources Gary Lunn that it's unfair that its competitors for the $6-billion contract, U.S.-based Westinghouse and Areva Group of France, will enjoy government subsidies to shore up their bids. Mr. Lamarre told the minister that while the federal Export Development Corp. has supported AECL sales of Candu nuclear reactors to China and Romania, such support would be unavailable in the case of Ontario because EDC doesn't finance domestic transactions. Critics has suggested money would be better spent on conservation and green power, some adding that Ontario Power Authority's estimate of $6 billion for the two reactors is far too low.

Monday 04 August 2008 OTTAWA: CANADA SUPPORTED US-INDIA NUCLEAR AGREEMENT
Canada is reported to be changing its policy on nuclear non-proliferation towards India. The move is aimed at including India in a group of nations that can trade openly in nuclear fuel and technology. Reports indicate that Canada supported a nuclear inspection plan for India approved Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The support is needed to implement a civil nuclear co-operation agreement signed by India and the United States. Canada sent nuclear reactor technology to India in the 1950's for peaceful purposes. India used the technology to make its first atomic bomb. That decision angered Canada and strained relations between the two countries. Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson now says Canada has to move ahead with its nuclear relations with India.

Sunday 03 August 2008 VIENNA: CANADA HAILS UN-INDIA NUCLEAR ACCORD
Speaking on another subject, Mr. Emerson has welcomed the accord announced on Friday between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Under the accord, the IAEA will increase the number of India's nuclear facilities from six to 14. Mr. Emerson says the agreement strengthens the international non-proliferation system by placing additional nuclear facilities in the world's biggest democracy under international monitoring. The development brings the tentative accord between India and the U.S. closer to implementation. The U.S. would end a three-decades-old ban on the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to India, a country which hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has tested nuclear weapons. India must still reach an accord with the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries that export nuclear material for the ban to be ended. Iran's top representative to the IAEA accuses the U.S. of applying a double standard that will undermine the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 Experts urge government to replace nuclear reactor
A panel of experts says the federal government needs to find a replacement as fast as possible for the...

NUCLEAR UNERTAINTY
The National, the Globe, the Star, the Post, the Citizen, and La Presse all go inside with two reports released yesterday that laid blame for the shutdown of the world’s biggest producer of medical isotopes and called on the federal government to replace the aging nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario. When the reactor was shut down last November for what was thought to be routine maintenance, a cavalcade of delays and embarrassment forced it to remain closed for about a month. Somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of the world’s supply of medical isotopes are produced at the fifty-year-old facility west of Ottawa, and yesterday’s reports only heightened allegations of on-the-ground incompetence. An expert panel of doctors appointed by the federal government to recommend steps forward suggested that the federal government ought to upgrade its reactor. Plans to do so, however, were recently shelved by the feds. The doctors wrote in their report that they were kept in the dark during the crisis, making it difficult to determine what changes to the treatment of patients should be made. “The lack of certainty was chilling,” the report says, and doctors’ ability to provide nuclear medicine was “teetering on the edge of disaster.” Not a great view from afar. The second report, compiled by consultant Talisman International, pointed the finger for the reactor’s shutdown at both the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL). Bad communication between the federal regulator and plant operator was at the heart of what could have been an even more disastrous situation, the report says. The CNSC found that seven upgrades to the plant should have been made in 2005. The AECL didn’t make the upgrades, because they didn’t know they were mandated to do so. Low-level CNSC employees neglected to remind the AECL of the matter’s urgency. Finally, high-level officials took action last November and temporarily shut down the unit. Federal officials have no plans to replace the reactor, which is entering its sixth decade of service.

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Monday Jul 28, 2008 Nuclear plant's weld failure 'unprecedented'
OTTAWA - When the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was struggling last December with a shortage of...

Thursday Jul 10, 2008 Federal nuclear operator sued for $1.6 billion
Life sciences firm MDS Inc. is suing the federal government and one of its crown corporations, Atomic...

TORONTO: OTTAWA SUED OVER MEDICAL ISOTOPES
The MDS Inc. firm, a major supplier of medical nuclear isotopes, is suing Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and the federal government for $1.6 billion over the cancellation of a nuclear reactor project. MDS accuses AECL of negligence and breach of contract because it cancelled in May a contract to build two new MAPLE nuclear reactors after years of delay and cost overruns. The reactors were designed to fulfil the entire world demand for four nuclear substances. Instead, AECL will continue to operate a reactor a Chalk River, ON. That facility was shut down for almost a month last fall, causing a worldwide shortage of isotopes used for cancer tests.

Wednesday 09 July 2008 CALGARY: NUCLEAR PLANT PITCHED FOR NORTHWEST
The Bruce Power partnership is promoting the possibility of a nuclear plant in Alberta's Peace River area, some 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Bruce Power Alberta forecasts a contribution of $12 billion to the provincial economy during a 10-year period of preparation and construction. It claims that 1,900 permanent jobs and 800 indirect ones would result as well. Bruce Power Alberta's president, Duncan Hawthorne, says that although more study must be done, the work done so far on the project is promising. Bruce Power earlier this year filed a request with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to prepare a site that could produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity. Bruce Power is owned by TransCanada Corp., Cameco Corp. and a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

Tuesday 08 July 2008 WASHINGTON: CANADIAN FIRM BUYS IRAQI URANIUM
The Iraqi government has shipped hundreds of tonnes of uranium from Iraq to Montreal after the world's biggest uranium firm bought it. The U.S. defence department says American soldiers discovered the "yellowcake" uranium at Iraq's nuclear facility south of Baghdad after the 2003 invasion and has transferred it to Canada at the Iraqi government's request. Cameco Inc. bought it for an unknown sum. "Yellowcake" can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors or, if enriched, for nuclear weapons. Cameco acknowledged the reception of 550 metric tonnes of the material on a ship during the weekend and says the uranium will be used at two nuclear facilities north of Toronto.

Monday 07 July 2008 MONTREAL: CANADA RECEIVES SECRET SHIPMENT OF URANIUM
A Canadian company says that the U.S. military was responsible for ensuring secrecy around the company's acquisition of a large amount of concentrated natural uranium from Iraq. Cameco Corporation bought 550 tonnes of a material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment known as yellowcake. The deal is reported to be worth tens of millions of dollars. Cameco says that secrecy came at the request of the U.S. military officials who supervised the transport of the raw material out of Iraq. The yellowcake uranium arrived in Montreal on Saturday by ship. It will be transported by truck to the company's facilities in the neighbouring province of Ontario. Stored and sealed properly, yellowcake uranium poses no severe risk. But Gordon Edwards, the head of the Montreal-based watchdog group, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, is wondering why secrecy was necessary if the uranium material is not usable for weapons.

Sunday 29 June 2008 MISSISSAUGA: JORDAN CONSIDERS CANADIAN ATOMIC ENERGY DEAL
The federal crown corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada and the Montreal-based engineering company, SNC-Lavalin, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission. The memorandum runs for three years. It's designed to help Jordan assess the feasibility of a nuclear power program based on Canada's Enhanced Candu 6 reactor. According to an AECL official, the EC-6 reactor is ideally compatible with Jordan's electricity grid. The reactor's design can help Jordan become more energy self-sufficient. SNC-Lavalin says that the memorandum might lead to more trade, investment and nuclear-related technology co-operation between Jordan and Canada.

Friday 27 June 2008

BEGINNING TO SAY NO TO NUCLEAR
The National, CTV News, the Globe, the Star, the Post and the Citizen all go inside with the North Korean government’s release of documents outlining the details of the country’s production of plutonium since 1965.?? In response, the US government took a bold step by easing some of its trade sanctions on North Korea and de-listing the country from its catalogue of terrorism-sponsoring states. The release of this sixty-page document, said Bush, “marked a promising development” for North Korea, which was once described by the current administration as part of the “axis of evil.” As evidence of North Korea’s commitment to reform its nuclear practices, the government promised to destroy a cooling tower attached to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and invited Western media to stand witness to the event. But neither the media nor the international community are holding their breath for a complete dismantling of the country’s nuclear program?? - the world has not forgotten how North Korea went back on an international pact it signed in 1994 to cease its nuclear efforts, and it has been only two years since the country was found exploding a rudimentary nuclear device. The Post points out that some Republicans view Bush’s decision as hasty and a cause for concern, while the Globe gives kudos to Condoleezza Rice for her role in negotiating North Korea’s steps toward nuclear disarmament.

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Tuesday 17 June 2008 TORONTO: PLANS FOR NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS MOVE FORWARD
The provincial government has moved again to increase amounts of electricity generated by nuclear reactor. The government has asked three manufacturers to submit "phase two" proposals to build two new reactors at the existing Darlington generating station east of Toronto. The companies are Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the French engineering firm Areva and U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp. The "phase two" proposals are due in October. The last nuclear reactor in Ontario went into operation in 1993. All the reactors in operation in the province are CANDU models built by AECL.

Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 Ontario picks Darlington for reactors

Two new nuclear reactors will be built at the site of the Darlington A power station near Toronto, Ontario...
Alan Findlay, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy, said the decision to build the reactors was between Darlington, 75 kilometres east of Toronto, and the Bruce nuclear plant in Tiverton, 225 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
"Maintaining and renewing Ontario's nuclear energy fleet is an important part of the Ontario government's climate change plan and its 20-year plan to bring clean, affordable and reliable electricity to Ontarians," the minister said in a statement
AREVA NP, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and Westinghouse Electric Co. were identified as the three organizations invited to bid on the power project.

Sunday Jun 15, 2008 Nuclear power gets green sheen
"There was terror as well as exaltation in their new insight," said Robert Oppenheimer of his pioneering.

Stopping the wrong sort of chain reaction May 22nd 2008 see Jacques Clément's economic Report.

Saturday 17 May 2008 OTTAWA: PLANNED REACTORS SCRAPPED
Canada is scrapping a project to build two new reactors. The reactors were planned to produce medical isotopes which are used to diagnose several diseases, including cancer and heart conditions. The Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine is concerned about the decision and says the Canadian government has to ensure that it has access to a backup supply of isotopes. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited says it will continue to produce medical isotopes at the reactor at Chalk River, ON, for the time being. The facility produces about half the world's supply of isotopes. Last year, the reactor was shut down for safety reasons.

Sunday May 18, 2008 Ottawa axes plan for two nuclear reactors
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has shelved plans to build a replacement for a reactor that produces vital..

Wednesday 23 April 2008 VIENNA: CANADA LEADS REJECTION OF U.S. URANIUM PROPOSAL
Canada led a rejection of a proposal by the U.S. concerning uranium exports at a meeting of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. The grouping sets and monitors policies on exports of sensitive atomic equipment and knowledge. Canada, the world's biggest supplier of uranium, together with South Africa, Brazil and Argentina, rejected both the continuation of a ban on enrichment-related trade renewed annually by G8 countries as well as a U.S. proposal to replace it. The Americans had proposed a system by which countries selling enrichment equipment be operated only by the seller. According to the Reuters news agency, Canada and the three other uranium-producing nations fear such a system would prevent them from marketing expertise to countries that fulfil anti-proliferation rules. The Nuclear Supplier Group will consider the matter again at a plenary session in Berlin in May.

Sunday 20 April 2008 Pakistan's military successfully carried out a test of a nuclear-capable Shaheen-2 missile. The long-range ballistic missile has a range of two-thousand kilometres. Pakistan has been trying to match the nuclear arsenal of its neighbor and rival, India. The two countries went to war three times since 1947.

Wednesday 09 April 2008 HALIFAX: INUIT IMPOSE MORATORIUM ON URANIUM MINING
The Inuit government in the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador's territory of Labrador has imposed a moratorium on the mining and milling of uranium until the Nunsiavut government develops its own environmental laws by 2011. William Barbour, its minister of lands and resources, says the decision was taken to ensure that the Inuit have a say in the long-term protection of their lands, adding that many residents entertain fears about the negative environmental and health effects of uranium mining. The decision drove down the stock shares of Aurora Energy Resources and several other mining firms active in the territory, Aurora's losing one-third of its value to close at $1.77 for an erasure of almost $130 million in market value.

Saturday 05 April 2008 TORONTO: AECL DROPS OUT OF BRITISH COMPETITION
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has announced its withdrawal from the bidding to design a new nuclear reactor for Britain. AECL says it will now concentrate on winning contracts for its advanced Candu reactor for proposed nuclear facilities in the domestic market in Ontario and Alberta. The Crown corporation says it has informed British regulators of its decision but may re-enter the competition at a later date. The announcement comes as the federal government reviews its operations amid speculation that AECL could be privatized or sold to a foreign firm.

Sunday 23 March 2008 Ontario clamping lid on bids for nuclear reactor
All four nuclear-reactor suppliers invited to bid on the construction of a new nuclear power plant for Ontario signalled this week that they plan to participate, though a communications ban on their involvement could undermine the government's promise of a transparent process.

Sunday 09 March 2008 OTTAWA: ONTARIO LOOKS TO EXPAND NUCLEAR POWER
The province of Ontario plans to build its first new nuclear reactor in decades to meet expanding energy needs and to reduce carbon emissions. Construction would begin within the next decade. Ontario wants to eliminate its coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014. It has 16 reactors operating at three nuclear power plant sites near Toronto. All were built in the 1970s and 1980s. Two aging reactors were taken out of service in 2005. They were deemed too costly to upgrade. Two other units are being refurbished.

Saturday 08 March 2008 TORONTO: FOUR ENTERPRISES VYE TO BUILD NUCLEAR REACTORS
The Ontario government says four companies are bidding to build the first new nuclear reactors in a decade and they include Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., a federal Crown corporation. The government has come under pressure to choose AECL, which builds the Candu reactor, but provincial Energy Minister Gerry Phillips says the four firms will be treated equally on the basis of the benefit they can offer to the economy. In December, federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said it's vital for the Canadian nuclear industry that Ontario choose the Candu technology because otherwise it would create a bad impression about its value in the world. Mr. Phillips said on Friday that Ontario cannot provide sufficient electric power without new nuclear capacity at either the Darlington or Bruce power plants. The government plans to spend $40 million to build two new reactors and to upgrade six others over the next 20 years.

Saturday 23 February 2008 Latin America nuclear pact signed
Argentina and Brazil agree to build a joint nuclear reactor to address looming energy shortages.

Saturday 09 February 2008 TORONTO:
PRIVATE SECTOR WOULD OWN, RUN NUCLEAR PLANT IN FIRST
The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that a plan is under consideration by which a consortium of private firms would build, own and operate a nuclear plant in what would be an unprecedented arrangement. According to the newspaper, the consortium would be in partnership with Atomic Energy of Canada to install a revised, bigger version of AECL's Candu 6 heavy-water reactor at the nuclear facility in Point Lepreau, NB. The province's energy minister, Jack Keir, says the government is eager for the project to go ahead and that it would supply both domestic and export markets. Mr. Keir says the government may itself take an equity share of the project. Historically, nuclear firms have sold and built nuclear reactors for public utilities, which then acquire billions of dollars of debt to finance them. The federal government is at present reviewing the ownership status of AECL, a Crown corporation, and is weighing whether to sell it to foreign competitors. Mr. Keir says New Brunswick is waiting to see whether Ottawa is committed to AECL before making a decision on the nuclear project.

Tuesday 05 February 2008 OTTAWA: ISOTOPE FIRM CRITICIZED OVER REACTOR SHUTDOWN
The Canadian Medical Association Journal has published an article in which the Canadian company that provides one-half of the world's medical isotopes is attacked. MDS Nordion stopped production after the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, ON, was shut down for safety violations. According to the article, MDS Nordion refused to try to alleviate the worldwide crisis by co-operating with two European producers of isotopes, Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group of the Netherlands and Belgium's Institut National des Radioélements. The European makers of isotopes co-operate by sharing production schedules to ensure that at least one nuclear reactor is always running. According to the Journal, the Dutch firm complained that MDS Nordion refused to provide information. The shutdown of the federally-owned reactor for almost a month in November and December caused a critical shortage of isotopes used to diagnose and to treat cancer and heart disease.

Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 The AECL-Chalk River story isn’t going away 

Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 Stolen truck with radioactive material found
Police recovered a truck containing radioactive material yesterday that was stolen in Edmonton on Saturday...

Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 N.B. may get second reactor
A consultant's report commissioned by the New Brunswick government says there's a case for construction...

Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 Chalk River plant connected to second pump The 50-year-old NRU reactor at Chalk River, Ont., has finally been connected to the second of two backup...

Monday 04 February 2008 Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate
An Illinois controversy pitting two important constituencies against each other put Barack Obama’s legislative skills to the test.

Monday 04 February 2008 FREDERICTON: NEW BRUNSWICK LOOKING AT SECOND NUCLEAR REACTOR
A report on the feasibility of constructing a second nuclear reactor in New Brunswick will be released on Monday. The provincial government has long insisted that another reactor could be built next to the first one at Point Lepreau on the Bay of Fundy. The facility is Atlantic Canada's only nuclear reactor. It is slated to undergo a major refurbishing at a cost of CDN$1.6 billion. Supporters of a second facility say that it would allow New Brunswick to market electricity to neighbouring U.S. states. Environmentalists say that the U.S. market has too many bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. Premier Shawn Graham ordered the feasibility study last year. He hopes that building a new 1,100 megawatt plant will created at least four thousand construction jobs and 500 permanent positions. Canada has 18 nuclear reactors providing about 15 per cent of the country's electricity.

Monday Feb 4, 2008 Nuclear system worked
The Chalk River nuclear reactor is humming along nicely again, but the controversy that began in December continues to jeopardize this country's reputation for safe technology and good government.
But Harper screwed up by turning the Chalk River issue into a political one

Wednesday 30 January 2008 OTTAWA: FORMER NUCLEAR SAFETY HEAD DEFENDS HER ACTIONS
The former head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on Tuesday made her first public comment since her dismissal earlier this month. Speaking before a House of Commons natural resources committee, Linda Keen said that she was simply acting according to the law when she ordered the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, to shut down temporarily last month. The shutdown stopped production of isotopes that are used in many countries for medical scans and treatments. Miss Keen justified her action, saying that the safety risk at the time was one thousand times higher than acceptable. Parliament unanimously ordered the reactor to re-open on December 16. Miss Keen was dismissed one month later. At the same parliamentary committee, Canada's auditor general, Sheila Fraser, expressed concern about the extent to which regulatory bodies such as the Nuclear Safety Commission may act independently of government. Last August, Miss Fraser wrote in a report that the Chalk River plant needed to invest CDN$600 million to address health, safety and security issues.

Wednesday 30 January 2008 bbc Canada isotope plant 'was unsafe' Canada re-opened a nuclear reactor despite safety risks, the nuclear watchdog's former head tells parliament.
Linda Keen told a House of Commons committee that she was acting according to the law when she refused to approve restarting the reactor last year.

Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 Health minister ridicules ex-nuclear watchdog's safety concerns
Health Minister Tony Clement belittled Linda Keen's concern for nuclear safety yesterday, within an ...

Friday 18 January 2008 PRINCE ALBERT: HARPER STANDS FIRM ON KEEN DISMISSAL
Prime Minister Harper is defending the government's decision to fire the head of Canada's Nuclear Safety Commission. Mr. Harper said Thursday his government took the only course of action it could in firing Linda Keen. Ms. Keen was dismissed after the government said she showed a lacked of leadership. The government said she didn't act quickly to resolve an impasse that led to the temporary shutdown last fall of the reactor at Chalk River, Ont., which in turn led to a shortage of medical isotopes. Mr. Harper said the government did not get assurances that the situation couldn't happen again. Opposition politicians have called the firing political interference and are accusing the Harper government of behaving like a dictatorship after it fired Ms. Keen for refusing to start up a reactor. The Official Opposition Liberal Party said Ms. Keen's dismissal from her post was similar to firing a judge whose rulings displease the government. The closure of the Chalk River reactor caused much controversy because it produces half of the world's supply of medical isotopes. The isotopes are used in medical imaging such as X-ray scans.

DROWNING IN CHALK RIVER
by Jordan Himelfarb
January 17, 2008

Just hours after having fired Linda Keen from her position as president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn found himself attempting to justify the move to a House of Commons committee yesterday. The convenient timing of Keen’s dismissal, which apparently seemed like a good idea at the moment, must have appeared somewhat perverse to Lunn as he was bombarded by questions from opposition MPs. The minister stayed on message: Because of Keen’s reckless decision to shut down the Chalk River nuclear reactor despite the fact that it’s the world’s largest producer of medical isotopes, Lunn told the committee, she lost the confidence of government and was fired accordingly. Had Lunn not intervened, he explained, “people invariably would have died.” However, politicians and media alike are not having any of it. Indeed, the Big Seven are unusually united against the government, fortified in their doubts about the motivations behind Lunn’s public battle with Keen by the latter’s late-night, surreptitious firing. This newfound anti-government animus is particularly in evidence in a triumvirate of pieces in the Citizen: An unflattering article on Lunn, a sympathetic profile of Keen, and a report suggesting that the newly appointed interim president of the CNSC is a Tory hack.

Big Seven analysis of the story varies in the details, but the thrust is remarkably consistent: Lunn’s indictment of Keen’s competence at yesterday’s hearing, commentators argue en masse, was entirely besides the point. Apart from an editorial in the Citizen that defends Keen’s decision to close the plant as a necessary and difficult one, most commentary eschews any discussion of the erstwhile president’s disputed talents, opting instead to address the problematic precedent set by the circumstances of her firing. As an editorial in the Star points out, Keen’s termination “for making a decision with which the government disagrees” casts doubt upon the independence of the CNSC and, for that matter, all regulatory bodies. John Ivison in the Post wonders if Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “trustworthiness” can ever be restored, while Lawrence Martin in the Globe (subscription required) points to the prime minister’s blatant disregard for the independence of the commission as an example of his “authoritarian streak” getting the better of him. Any doubt that the dispute between the government and Keen is about politics rather than safety seems to have been erased by the transparently political timing of the erstwhile president’s axing. While the decision to overrule Keen’s judgement on Chalk River may have resulted from something more than partisan politics, the manner of her public humiliation and unceremonious firing did not.

Thursday 17 January 2008 OTTAWA:
THE ROW OVER NUCLEAR SHUTDOWN GROWS
The head of the the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Linda Keen, has been fired over her handling of last fall's shutdown of a nuclear reactor in the province of Ontario. The reactor, located in the community of Chalk River, produces half of the world's supply of medical isotopes. Ms. Keen went public last week with complaints of political interference by Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn. Both Mr. Lunn and Ms. Keen were scheduled to appear to give their sides of the isotope controversy before a House of Commons committee on Wednesday. However, an e-mail sent to the Commons Natural Resources Committee by the nuclear agency while Mr. Lunn was testifying Wednesday morning stated because Ms. Keen was no longer CNSC president, she would not be appearing. Mr. Lunn told the committee that Ms. Keen lacked leadership and lost the confidence of the Conservative government because of her response to the medical isotope crisis. The extended shutdown at Chalk River created a shortage of medical isotopes. Ms. Keen was fired late Tuesday, one week after she went public with complaints of political interference. Liberal MP David McGuinty demanded that Mr. Lunn table written evidence of where Ms. Keen failed in her responsibilities. The committee has the power to call Ms. Keen as an independent witness.

Thursday Jan 17, 2008
Lunn fires nuclear safety chief 'in dark of night'
MPs questioned why the government would fire an independent regulator at 10 p.m., on the eve of her scheduled testimony to the House of Commons natural resources committee, which is probing the government's handling of the medical isotopes shortage last month.

Friday 11 January 2008

VIDEO: Nuclear power? Yes Please

Thursday 10 January 2008 OTTAWA: OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS FOR FEDERAL MINISTER TO RESIGN
Stephane Dion, leader of the opposition Liberal Party, on Wednesday took aim at the Minister of Natural Resources, Gary Lunn, calling for his resignation. Mr. Dion said that was unacceptable that Mr. Lunn is threatening to dismiss the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Linda Keen. Mr. Lunn and Miss Keen are involved in a bitter public debate over her decision to close the nuclear power plant at Chalk River, Ontario, temporarily late last year for maintenance. The plant produces nuclear isotopes for use in medical tests around the world. Closure of the plant caused a severe shortage of isotopes. The Liberal Party is urging the government to hold a meeting with Mr. Lunn and Miss Keen so that they can explain their positions.

Thursday 10 January 2008
UNHEEDED WARNINGS
Canada’s patron saint of public accountability has waded into the Chalk River isotope fiasco. The Globe, the Citizen, and the Post front, while the Star goes inside with Auditor-General Sheila Fraser’s report warning that Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is coming up short in its efforts to produce enough medical isotopes to satisfy world demand. The report, completed in late August but made public yesterday, also said that the aging facilities at the Chalk River reactor needed replacing, a revelation that comes after Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn threatened to fire Linda Keen, Canada’s nuclear watchdog, over her shutdown of the reactor for repairs. Although the concerns raised in Fraser’s report do not precisely correspond with the circumstances surrounding the Keen controversy, all of the outlets covering the story strongly insinuate that Lunn had information backing Keen’s judgment, raising questions about whether she is now being used as a political scapegoat. Yesterday, MediaScout told you that Keen shot back at Lunn, lampooning him for improper political interference into the activities of government regulators. Now Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is in Keen’s corner, arguing that the “incompotent” minister should be fired. Writing in the Citizen, Deirdre McMurdy looks at the perils of a system that keeps civil servants’ ties to political parties murky. If you are a government appointee in the US, she writes, “you dance with who brung ya,” and leave when they do, whereas north of the border, the lack of openness about political ties leads to wanton accusations of partisanship, like the one Lunn leveled at Keen. Today’s coverage hints at the possibility that the Conservative government’s tendency to clash with agencies that are supposed to be at arm's length (think Elections Canada over the veiled-voter issue) might be a lightning rod for opposition parties seeking to paint them as a threat to democratic institutions.

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Thursday Jan 10, 2008 This is no way to fix a nuclear safety issue
Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn and the federal government of which he is a part are fighting an uphill battle against Linda Keen, president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. That Lunn was not wrong about the issue that sparked the dispute does not excuse his heavy-handedness in trying to force her out of office.

Wednesday Jan 9, 2008 I won't go quietly, nuclear watchdog says
The president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission vowed yesterday to serve out her term as Canada...

Lunn's letter also threatened her "commission be terminated."

But in a missive released yesterday, responding to Lunn's initial correspondence, Keen said: "Your threat to have me removed as president seriously undermines the independent of the CNSC."

She also promised to continue to serve as president until her term expires on November 2010, and asked that her tenure be reviewed.

Tuesday 08 January 2008
OTTAWA CITIZEN: “Tories set to fire top nuclear watchdog”

THE STRAIGHT GOODS:
A leaked letter reveals that the government will soon fire Canada’s nuclear watchdog in the wake of the Chalk River medical isotope fiasco. US President George W. Bush will make his first-ever trip to the Middle East tomorrow, amid unrest and low expectations. Health Canada bars gay men from donating organs, following a similar policy on blood collection.
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UNLOADING THE BLAME FOR CHALK RIVER
The Citizen leads today with a scoop on the imminent firing of Canada’s top nuclear watchdog over the Chalk River medical isotope crisis. A leaked letter from Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn shows the president of the Nuclear Safety Commission is precariously positioned on the political precipice, about to take the fall. Lunn claims in the letter that Linda Keen ignored his directive to restart the reactor, which produces life-saving medical isotopes. At the time, Keen insisted that the reactor had to stay closed until needed repairs were completed, but Parliament rushed through legislation mandating its reopening. Lunn said Keen’s response gave him doubts concerning her judgment. These doubts weighed so heavily upon his mind that Lunn is now “considering making a recommendation to the Governor in Council (Cabinet) that your designation as president of the commission be terminated.” 

The Citizen and the Post point out that the letter pre-empts the prime minister’s promised review of the Chalk River incident. But Whether Keen’s sacking is the one and only stop on the Harper accountability train remains to be seen. MediaScout always loves a juicy leaked document, and a big thank-you to the Citizen for serving it up. Still, both the Post and the Citizen seem to gloss over the extent to which this latest development in the isotope fiasco might be an attempt by the Conservatives to unload their own blame. The Liberals have been aching to pin the problem on the government, which may have led Prime Minister Harper to zero in on Keen, calling her a Liberal partisan. As this story breaks further apart, the Big Seven should strive to detect the Conservatives’ own partisan motives, even though the Liberals will likely not waste too much time before they embark on that quest for themselves.

2007

Saturday Dec 22, 2007 Ditch weapons-grade uranium, critics urge
Canada's insistence on using weapons-grade material at its Chalk River, Ont., reactor could jeopardize...

Wednesday Dec 19, 2007 Tories knew about nuke plant problems in October: Liberals
The Opposition Liberals continued their attack yesterday on the federal government for its handling

Wed1346 page2 The AECL Chalk River generator problems and their effect on world supply of radioactive isotopes has become major news. The government’s decision to countermand the decision to close down the reactor and the lack of public outcry of possible disaster from that decision leads one to ask whether the entire drama was not more politically than safety related. In either case, Canadians’ confidence and pride in our Chalk River facility has surely been shaken, if only minimally.

Monday 17 December 2007 CHALK RIVER: NUCLEAR REACTOR RESUMES PRODUCING ISOTOPES Atomic Energy of Canada re-opened its nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario over the weekend. The reactor will begin producing medical isotopes within four days. The reactor makes more than two-thirds of the global supply of isotopes used in medical devices to detect cancer and other illnesses. The nuclear facility was shut down in November for technical reasons, triggering serious shortages of isotapes. Last week, the Canadian government ordered the plant to reopen. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is the federally owned nuclear technology firm that operates the reactor. Its chairman stepped down this week, apparently under pressure from the federal government.

Saturday Dec 15, 2007 Atomic Energy chief replaced amid flap over isotopes
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cleaned house at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., appointing a new chair..

Saturday 15 December 2007 OTTAWA: ISOTOPES SOON BACK IN PRODUCTION
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. says its reactor at Chalk River, ON, is being restarted and is expected to begin producing the radioactive material used to make medical isotopes in seven or eight days. The announcement came after all political parties in the House of Commons rushed to pass emergency legislation to bypass a shutdown order by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The reactor was to have been shut down for five days of routine maintenance on Nov. 5 but the Commission ordered a prolonged shutdown when it discovered that AECL hadn't installed a backup system as had been ordered last year as a condition of the renewal of Chalk River's licence. The isotopes are used in cancer and cardiology tests and doctors had begun complaining that shortages were endangering their patients. Chalk River supplies mobylybdenum to a company that manufacturers about one-half of the isotopes used in North America. AECL insists that Chalk River is safe.

Thursday 13 December 2007
OTTAWA: LIBERALS WILL EXPEDITE LEGISLATION TO END MEDICAL CRISIS
The federal opposition Liberal Party says it won't stall passage of emergency legislation to restart operation of the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, ON, and will in fact expedite it. Sen. Céline Hervieux-Payette says the legislation is a vital health and safety concern. The House of Commons approved emergency legislation on Tuesday night which will allow Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. to operate it for 120 days. The Chalk River facility provides materials to make one-half of the radioisotopes used in North America to conduct tests for cancer and heart disease and the shortage of mobylydenum that the shutdown has caused has led to a crisis across North America. Chalk River was supposed to be shut for routine maintence for five days last month but the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission ordered a prolonged shutdown on the grounds that AECL had failed to carry out a safety measure ordered last year as a provision of its licence renewal.

Wednesday 12 December 2007 OTTAWA: PM IRATE OVER CLOSED NUCLEAR REACTOR
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has expressed fury with the country's nuclear regulator for keeping shut a nuclear reactor that provides material used for cancer tests. The Chalk River reactor produces mobylybdenum used by the MDS Inc. company to make one-half of the medical isotopes used in the world. The isotopes are used in tests for cancer, heart disease and other afflictions. Mr. Harper told the House of Commons that the government has received independent advice that there are no safety problems at Chalk River. But the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says there are and that the facility will stay closed until they're solved. The Commission says the reactor's operator, state-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., failed to respect a safety provision of its licence renewal. Mr. Harper's minority Conservative government is trying to push through legislation to allow the facility to reopen for 120 days. But the official opposition party, the Liberals, refuses, calling such legislation irresponsible. Chalk River was first shut down last month. The Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine says for each month it remains shut, 50,000 Canadians and 160,000 Americans are forced to have their tests postponed. ISOTOPE DISPUTE SETS HOUSE AGLOW
The National, CTV News, the Globe, the Star and the Citizen front, while the Post goes inside with the parliamentary fracas about restarting the Chalk River nuclear reactor to ease a global shortage of medical isotopes. The controversy over the aging nuclear plant is bringing to light major conflicts between the government, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission that regulates nuclear reactors, and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that manages nuclear research and development and operates the Chalk River plant. Last night, the government heard testimony in the Commons itself over nuclear safety—something that “has not been done in decades” according to the Star—from the CNSC, AECL and nuclear-safety experts over AECL’s failure to install required backup systems at Chalk River. As the Citizen explains, a CNSC inspection of the reactor on November 19 revealed that AECL hadn’t connected two crucial pumps to the plant’s emergency power supply, contravening an order to do just that issued by the CNSC more than a year ago. It’s this issue, which AECL had “camouflaged” as a “routine maintenance issue” in a December 4 press release, that led the CNSC to shut Chalk River down and notify the government that AECL had violated its operating license. Let that sink in for a moment: A Crown corporation allowed an aging nuclear reactor, two hours from the fourth-largest city in the country, to operate for over a year without essential safety equipment, after being ordered by a quasi-judicial federal body to install the backup pumps as a condition of its operating license.

When viewed in that light, last night’s heated debate in the