Canada is on its way out of the medical isotope business.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that he would only try to keep the Chalk River nuclear reactor running long enough for other countries to take over the production of medical isotopes.
"Eventually, we anticipate Canada will be out of the business," Harper said.
"The government determined, it was a difficult decision, but we can't spend hundreds of millions of dollars and never produce an isotope."
Harper made the announcement yesterday, but did not explain which countries would become producers, how willing they would be to sell their isotopes to Canadian hospitals, or when the transition would happen.
TEARFUL APOLOGY
It came on the same day Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt made a tearful public apology for taped comments to an aide in which she said the medical isotope crisis was a "sexy" way of furthering her career.
"My intent was certainly not to show any disrespect to the victims, survivors or their families," she said.
In the brief statement, Raitt appeared on the verge of tears as she described watching her father pass away from colon cancer when she was 11. Twenty years later, she said, she was in the room with her brother when he died of lung cancer.
Raitt's ministry is responsible for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that owns and runs the 51-year-old nuclear reactor at Chalk River. It produces a third of the world's medical isotopes used in heart and cancer scans.
The reactor has been shut down since May 14 while engineers repair a heavy water leak.
The reactor will be offline for several months and some have said it may never come back online.
Raitt insisted that she would continue to work with Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, whom she was heard to criticize on the tape, but refused to bow to oppositions demands that she resign as minister.
"With respect to the medical isotopes issue, however, I will continue to work ... to address the isotope shortage in Canada and around the world," she said.
DEMAND FOR RESIGNATION
Her defiance prompted renewed calls for her resignation as MPs from all parties took aim at her government's record on the isotope file.
Liberal health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett said while Raitt's apology was important, resolving the isotope supply issue was a problem that required leadership.
"We are calling her absolutely incompetent and irresponsible in terms of her responsibility to secure a supply of isotopes in this country," Bennett said.
"Yes, she must go."
Dumbass. Instead of replacing the Chalk River reactor they instead decide wash their hands and jeopardize people's lives by no longer producing medical isoptopes. They should have at least tried to get the Maple reactors working and decommission the CR reactor but noooooooooooo.
ASVS('97)/SDN('03)
"Whilst human alchemists refer to the combustion triangle, some of their orcish counterparts see it as more of a hexagon: heat, fuel, air, laughter, screaming, fun." Dawn of the Dragons
Why are they cutting it out? Is it an unprofitable investment? What possible reason can they have for not continuing? Why? Jesus. Don't tell me the hippies are going 'no nukes' for these things.
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Shroom Man 777 wrote:Why are they cutting it out? Is it an unprofitable investment? What possible reason can they have for not continuing? Why? Jesus. Don't tell me the hippies are going 'no nukes' for these things.
The only plant that's making them right now isn't making them right now -- it's old and currently leaking heavy water. My recollection is that we've tried to get some other plants online to start producing isotopes, but they've been unsuccessful so far, despite spending tens of millions of dollars.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
It came on the same day Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt made a tearful public apology for taped comments to an aide in which she said the medical isotope crisis was a "sexy" way of furthering her career.
Why isn't she out on her ass already?
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Shroom Man 777 wrote:Why are they cutting it out? Is it an unprofitable investment? What possible reason can they have for not continuing? Why? Jesus. Don't tell me the hippies are going 'no nukes' for these things.
The only plant that's making them right now isn't making them right now -- it's old and currently leaking heavy water. My recollection is that we've tried to get some other plants online to start producing isotopes, but they've been unsuccessful so far, despite spending tens of millions of dollars.
They were supposed to bring the Maple 1 & 2 reactors online last year but they couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Why can't they use the CANDU designs or any current designs to build a nuclear reactor to make medical isotopes?
ASVS('97)/SDN('03)
"Whilst human alchemists refer to the combustion triangle, some of their orcish counterparts see it as more of a hexagon: heat, fuel, air, laughter, screaming, fun." Dawn of the Dragons
It came on the same day Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt made a tearful public apology for taped comments to an aide in which she said the medical isotope crisis was a "sexy" way of furthering her career.
Why isn't she out on her ass already?
She offered her resignation to the PM last week over another gaffe, and it was declined. The party in power here is already on thinning ice, and sacking ministers doesn't make you look stronger. It'll make great fodder for the opposition at the next election, though, and that could come any time now.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
It came on the same day Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt made a tearful public apology for taped comments to an aide in which she said the medical isotope crisis was a "sexy" way of furthering her career.
Why isn't she out on her ass already?
She made some comment to her assistant that was off the record yet her assistant taped it. In other words she made some offensive comment in what was supposed to be a private conversation. My guess right now is that the only person that had their head rolled was Raitt's assistant.
Mind you this wasn't the first time a federal cabinet minister has been taped saying something offensive on what was supposed to be a private conversation.
ASVS('97)/SDN('03)
"Whilst human alchemists refer to the combustion triangle, some of their orcish counterparts see it as more of a hexagon: heat, fuel, air, laughter, screaming, fun." Dawn of the Dragons
Shroom Man 777 wrote:Why are they cutting it out? Is it an unprofitable investment? What possible reason can they have for not continuing? Why? Jesus. Don't tell me the hippies are going 'no nukes' for these things.
Regulatory overload. Everything you do related to nuclear power is incredibly expensive. If a mistake is made in the design phase, it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to fix it. It is related to hippie anti-nuke sentiment in a way: there is so much red tape associated with anything nuclear that the costs skyrocket, and it's difficult to do anything nuclear unless there's a huge need for it.
Add to this the fact that Harper is a Conservative, and conservative policy tends to be "when in doubt, downsize government". They probably hope that "the market" will just pick up the slack somehow.
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Shroom Man 777 wrote:Why are they cutting it out? Is it an unprofitable investment? What possible reason can they have for not continuing? Why? Jesus. Don't tell me the hippies are going 'no nukes' for these things.
Yes, there are people so anti-nuclear they oppose medical isotopes. Why should that surprise anyone? They don't want the reactors in their neighborhoods. They don't want the isotopes transported through their neighborhoods (or, more commonly, over their neighborhoods - many of these have such a short half life that the only practical way to deliver them is via chartered jets).
Chalk River doesn't just supply the isotopes for Canada - a significant part of the US relies on it as well.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
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Darth Wong wrote:
Add to this the fact that Harper is a Conservative, and conservative policy tends to be "when in doubt, downsize government". They probably hope that "the market" will just pick up the slack somehow.
Well, considering this excerpt from the CBC...
"Government officials say the plan is to extend Chalk River's mandate until that year, by which point other countries, research facilities, new technologies, or private industry could help meet the global demand." - June 10
So, in summary: Conservative government chooses to privatize a profitable, crown owned corporation which includes the facilities and operations at Chalk River for these radioactive isotopes without any plan other than: Privatize... ... ... PROFIT! Blind faith in private industry is a strong cornerstone of conservative ideology, and as a result they continue to sell off public assets without any strategic plan to address the PUBLIC HEALTH issue. Simply brilliant.
Who the hell has a private nuclear reactor? Isn't that a requirement for private industry to take over this business?
Sounds more like "We want out of the business, period, we don't care if anyone else takes over or not, just get us the hell out of it".
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:Who the hell has a private nuclear reactor? Isn't that a requirement for private industry to take over this business?
Well, according to the EIA, there are 104 nuclear reactors in the US which generate electricity, of which 69 are PWRs (pressurized water reactors), all of which are operated by energy companies like Alliant and Duke. Though I see nothing in the article stating the type of reactor, it seems that (according to wikipedia's Chalk River article) it's a CANDU reactor. That means it's a pressurized heavy water reactor. It may not be easy to convert a reactor to produce the isotopes, but it would seem that private industry at least has part of the technological base to do that.
Ryan Thunder wrote:Motherfucker. I'd say he lost my vote, but he did that ages ago...
Same here. Damn though, my wifes friend works up there and a bunch of ex-army guys run the ERT on the site. You can pretty much kiss the town and Deep River good bye as well, considering that most of the people living there work at AECL. Hopefully this will get reversed if the PC get booted.
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