Environment

Thank you Linda Keen

by ppeggy | January 30, 2008 at 07:42 am

486 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment

See, this is the kind of thing that worries me most about nuclear power. Inevitably, there comes a time when someone needs the power so much that political pressure is brought to bear to keep a reactor going even when it isn't safe to do so. I'm sure Chalk River isn't the only example. And when there's an accident at a nuclear reactor, the whole world suffers. Thank you Linda Keen.

The former head of Canada's nuclear safety watchdog says she was legally bound to defy a government directive to restart the Chalk River reactor last month because the risk of an accident was 1,000 times greater than the international standard. Linda Keen's refusal to authorize restarting the aging reactor sparked a critical shortage of medical isotopes and ultimately led to her firing as president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

But in her first comments since the Conservative government sacked her late on Jan. 15, a defiant Keen said Tuesday that it wasn't her job to weigh the impact of the shutdown on the supply of isotopes. Her only duty, as spelled out in the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, was to ensure nuclear facilities are operated safely.

"Some have suggested that the chance of a nuclear accident was low, that the reactor was safe enough," Keen told the Commons natural resources committee.

"Well, with respect, safe enough simply isn't good enough.".....more.....