Slashdot Mirror
CDN Forces Reactor Online Against Safety Regulations
Socguy writes "The Canadian government has passed legislation that will reopen an Ontario nuclear reactor that produces most of the world's supply of critical medical isotopes, even though the site has been shut down for safety maintenance. Witnesses and experts were called in to the House to face questions about safety concerns and all parties eventually voiced support for the bill, which would effectively suspend CNSC's oversight role for 120 days. The Chalk River reactor ceased operating on Nov. 18. Pressure on the government to restart operations began to build after delays in the shutdown of the government-run site, which generates two-thirds of the world's radioisotopes, began to cause a critical shortage of radioisotopes."
...why they couldn't have stockpiled their products before the shutdown, but then realized that the half-lives for the sort of thing they're offering are probably measured in days or hours, right?
... how many people were abso-freaking-lutely SHOCKED to learn that there was no "backup"? There's a WTF if there ever was one.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
... when business takes priority to safety especially at a nuclear reactor. Sounds to me like there is a need for more alternate sites to provide these radio-isotopes to the rest of the world. I bet the places that produce the other 1/3 are making a fortune right now due to supply/demand.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Even if nothing goes wrong, they've set a dangerous precedent of basically telling their watchdog group "Well, we'll let you do your thing, but even though we know little about the engineering behind a reactor, we are also going to basically feel free to disregard you and tell you to suck it if we don't like what you say."
A spectacular idea. Why aren't we, maybe, wondering how we ended up with only ONE reactor that can produce this stuff in the first place?
If firefighters fight fire, and crimefighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin
I've done a lot of work out at chalk river with neutron diffraction, and talking to some of the people there apparently a lot of the "issues" are petty little things like signage for hot pipes, etc. The largest issue is back up generators for 2 key pumps, but in reality there are back up pumps with seperate power supplies that could take over in a worst case senario (not likely though). It all appears to be political gesturing as usual but unfortunately this time peoples lives are truly at stake. But then again considering the previous actions of the liberal party i'm truly not that suprised, just saddened that a grab for political power is so negatively affecting peoples lives world wide
drunk chemists
Nobody forces me to maintain my car, but I do it anyway to avoid things like losing a wheel at highway speeds. So we have a nuclear reactor (failure scales a wee bit above losing a wheel) with the government telling them to ignore maintenance requirements? Maybe they need another reactor (I wish I had a second car) but things capable of "spectacular" failure do not need to be pushed beyond safety regs...
you rush her into the car, strap on the seatbelt, and start heading towards the hospital. on the way there, the "check engine" maintenance light comes on
do you:
1. stop the car, and call for an ambulance
2. drive on, ignoring the light
i think we all know what the obvious answer is
folks: people could die without these radioisotopes. additionally, the safety issue is probably something extremely circumspect
please, no more scolding lectures about safety first, the canadian government did the right thing
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Then someone asked the question : why don't they make a four-month-reserve?
The answer IS 42.
How does this one site belonging to a single country generate two-thirds of the worlds radioisotopes? How is this possible?
Who are the other [major] suppliers? The world has so several nuclear powers and I wonder what these powers are doing.
The fact that this reactor was built in the fifties is a blessing in disguise! You see, it shows that the engineering even back then, was sound.
On the other hand, it points to ineptness of successive Canadian governments that have failed to install better and more efficient nuclear systems.
To me, this *is* decay.
(Hey, with all these Canadian stories we've been getting lately, when will we get a Canada icon to display with stories?)
I find it rather ironic that this nuclear plant is only about 100 miles upstream from Ottawa and Parliament Hill, yet parliament is so eager to get it back started up.
I'm not saying there is a high risk of something going wrong, but there's certainly a risk involved. I guess it's kinda refreshing to see stupid political decisions threatening the very people who are making those decisions. Too bad it could affect me, too!
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
I have to wonder which isotopes Chalk River produces. We don't talk much about the production side of things here, so I honestly can't say. Following links on the wikipedia page for the reactor, I can say that it produces Mo-99 and Co-60--as I could've guessed. 99m-Tc (made naturally from Mo-99 decay) is literally indispensible to nuclear medicine as we know it today--from what I've seen, if nuclear pharmacists could use 99m-Tc for everything, they would. Co-60 is still important for some applications (Gamma Knife, and some other teletherapy units). So, I would say having a steady supply of these radioisotopes is pretty important.
Anyone know which others? Ir-192 (or precursors?)? Radioactive iodines?
It is not a maintenance requirement. It is a modification request to a plant that has been in operation for many years already. The mod will be done eventually, but they have been ordered to do it with minimal disruption.
Anyhoo, they don't really produce a large fraction of the world's supply of isotopes, simply because transporting the stuff all over the place would be extremely wasteful due to the short life thereof - that is pure media hyperbole. It would be true in an Ontario sort of way, where Ontario is regarded as 'the whole world'.
Every major city with a cancer treatment centre has to produce their own isotopes, since even if you would transport the stuff in a military jet it won't get there in time.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
12.12.2007
Green Party demands inquiry into AECL negligence
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper should save taxpayers money on the Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry and instead perform a useful inquiry, says the Green Party. The party is calling for a full inquiry into the behaviour of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., focusing on safety concerns arising from AECL's severe lack of accountability, its repeated failures to comply with instructions from its regulator, radioactive dumping practices and other environmental transgressions along with the recent incident at Chalk River, where AECL ignored licensing conditions.
"It is apparent that AECL has become a rogue force and pays no heed to safety instructions from its regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). Mr. Harper must look into this serious situation at once to gain control over AECL," said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. "We urgently need answers. Why was AECL operating the NRU reactor in violation of its license and why did the Harper government allow this to happen?"
The CNSC ordered the installation of a backup power supply system at the Chalk River reactor as a crucial safeguard, yet AECL operated the reactor without the backup system until it was caught red handed last month.
"Canadians also deserve to know why the government was unprepared for the shortage of medical radioisotopes when the Chalk River facility was shut down for routine maintenance. The government saw this coming from a mile away, so why did the Harper government fail to source the isotopes from other reactors? Why is he only now scrambling to do something about the situation? How is it that AECL is years behind schedule and at least $160 million over budget on bringing online the two Maple reactors which could have prevented this shortage?"
Ms. May said the inquiry should also investigate AECL's former practice of dumping thousands of litres of radioactive waste into Chalk River daily.
"We know that AECL continued to dump up to 4,000 litres of radioactive waste a day into Chalk River despite repeated commitments to stop. Furthermore, does AECL have a plan for the decontamination of Chalk River? We demand to know how AECL was allowed to get away with dumping radioactive contaminants into the river and what have been taken to clean up this mess."
In 2003, AECL told the CNSC that the cost of a clean up would be at least $2 billion.
"For too long, the AECL has been permitted to operate as it pleases - defying orders from its regulator, keeping its practices secret and avoiding accountability. Mr. Harper must rein in this rogue force for the safety of all Canadians."
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
Also they've been working on two more reactors but they are years behind schedule.
Fortunately, where I live in western Canada, we get our isotopes from the Netherlands. Go figure.
Personally, I have to agree with the forced reopening of the reactor. It sounds terrifying, and it's a disgrace that we're in this situation, but the risk is very minimal. The story has been playing in the media here in Canada for a few days now.
This is not a large-scale power generating reactor. It's a relatively small "research" reactor and it is more or less middle of nowhere.
From what I recall from the news stories, the current hold up is the backup power to the second pump is offline. The backup power to the first pump is online, and only one pump needs to be operating at any one time. The truly disgraceful thing is that the plant has been improperly operating without any proper backup power lines for months and months. The current unexpectedly long shut-down occurred because the improper backup systems were discovered by the regulators during a shorter planned down time.
On the flip side, critical medical scans are being canceled by the thousands across North and South America. You can't point at any specific case, but given the large number of procedures being delayed, I'd bet that someone out there is going to die on a daily basis because a scan is postponed.
Observe the current quote at the bottom of the page:
"Real Men don't make backups. They upload it via ftp and let the world mirror it. -- Linus Torvalds"
Unfortunately, this doesn't work for generators, nor does it for reactors.
"There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order." - Ed Howdershelt
Punish them by nuking 'em! . . . . oh wait
Table-ized A.I.
The current unexpectedly long shut-down occurred because the improper backup systems were discovered by the regulators.
Should AECL have been more diligent in hiding the improper backup systems from the regulators?!!!
What happens if the only working pump fails?
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
It isn't very big/powerful. I'm not too concerned. I also live MANY miles away. Up wind. On the other side of the Rockies. What could possibly go wrong?
Last I heard from my buddy, they kept blowing out power converters/relays/Jeffry's Tubes? or something (he's an EE, not a nuke tech) and that was occupying his time. I guess he's been busy trying to get things online. Might explain him falling off the face of the earth.
887321 = 337*2633
Maybe the plan is to deal with the isotope shortage by putting isotopes EVERYWHERE ...
Nothing further to say.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
About 16 yrs ago I was a younger physicist looking for work. I found a job conducting/directing neutron activations at a reactor making medical materials, testing samples at a major facility. Measured 92 of the elements, even down to ppb. (Needed x-ray facilities for more, across town...) We generated the second-highest amount of low-level waste in my state. My job was to bag-and-tag all the isotopic waste, too.
My boss tried to get me to dump it all into the dumpster, so he could pocket the ~$75000US instead. One day, walking through the adjacent building, a safety guy from the NRC cornered me and asked who's side I'd be on when called to testify: "Put me on the top of the list"! I said. Meaning, in no unslashdotted terms, I'd serve up the sob. Funny but I had to stand in for him to teach the nu-cu-lar safety class he was supposed to have instructed.
Gotta love it, behind door number 1:
Leave the reactor closed, definitely kill people.
Behind door number 2: Violate safety regs on a reactor, possibly kill people.
Politics is definitely a game more fun to play from the bleachers. For what it's worth, I live in the country and I agree this is the best of a bad situation.
Min
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
how on earth is this flamebait ?
MP3 Search Engine
folks: people could die without these radioisotopes
And people could die in a nuclear accident.
i think we all know what the obvious answer is
That's because you're no worse off calling the ambulance from your broken down car on the highway as you would be from home.
please, no more scolding lectures about safety first, the canadian government did the right thing
No, they did not, because this action will make it even harder to convince communities to permit nuclear facilities to be located near them.
When something with this Reactor goes wrong? What would /.'s Reply be?
Something about how the government shouldn't interfere with safety.
Or will they say.
Atleast we saved people with those Isotopes.
Really If this reactors been off line for this long apparently its not that CRITICAL since its hasn't been on the news till now or at least not that iv heard.
Get the backup systems online ASAP then put it back online. If its that important it cant be that wrong to spend money to insure its safe running.
This whole thing sounds a lot like that old tale of the diligent, hard-working ant and the lazy, procastinating grasshopper. If these isotopes are so important to preserving human life, why the hell don't we have more reactors in place to produce them? Even if we didn't need to keep such reactors constantly active, there's no excuse for us not having at least a couple back-up facilities on hand in the event the primary facilities would even become unusable or inaccessible.
(Of course, this argument could apply to almost any limited resources mankind continually depends on...)
8==8 Bones 8==8
downs syndrome children you say should just be left out in the snow in wintertime? like the cavemen did?
;-)
;-)
what about the autistic?
how about the socially awkward?
how about the elderly?
where do you draw the line?
howabout only super-optimal fit and intelligent 20 somethings allowed to live, the rest turned into protein shakes? sounds good? do you fall in that group?
or maybe turn the less fit into slaves?
nah, i have a better idea. because in the path from the caves to the cities, we made some progress. one of the greatest points of progress that we made is to turn a warmer eye to our fellow human beings. we had to, as a SURVIVAL ADVANTAGE. because you see, oh great genius that you are (not), a GROUP of organized, subintelligent, physically unfit humans can outcompete a lone superfit supersmart human for survival
so honestly, then, if we were ever to bring back the just-put-them-outside-in-the-snow approach to the less than physically and mentally optimum humans amongst us, i would nominate people who think like you to be stuck out there first
you've displayed that you lack a very important survival gene: you devalue your fellow human beings. us, the group, we understand then that you are not going to work with us, but against us: cast a cold uncaring eye on some of us and think about discarding some of us, who, despite having limited means, are wholly devoted to working with the group- a much more desireable survival trait
we have found that you are problem that, how should i put this, let me find the right words: "consumes resources of a half-dozen productive men". where productive men are those who work with the group, not cast an eye towards dismantling some of it. best to discard you, you are malformed
you, my friend, are on the low end of the gene pool, where the new important gene is the one for simple human empathy
more important then strength. more important than intelligence
enjoy your extinction, dinosaur, and you're welcome for the intellectual charity for you in this post, dear dim little troll
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
However I have found that there is at least one other reactor in the world that produces the at least one of the isotopes (molybdenum-99) as the Chalk River reactor, and it's in The Netherlands (Europe) (see http://www.nrg-nl.com/public/medical/valley/node6.html). I gather that some of the other isotopes needed (technetium-99) are decays products of mo-99. I really wonder if all possibilities have been exhausted. After all ... Europe produces that particular isotope as well, and Russia and China must be doing the same; if not Japan as well.
Apparently the DOE proposed to build a domestic source for mo-99 in 1995 (see http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/1995/December/Day-22/pr-377.html) but apparently this hasn't been implemented yet. The note identifies a number of existing reactors which could be modified:
"Annular Core Research Reactor and associated hot cell facility at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory to produce Mo-99 and related medical isotopes. The Draft EIS also analyzes the environmental impacts of producing Mo-99 using the Omega West reactor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Power Burst Facility at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Research Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as well as the impacts of not establishing a Mo-99 production source (the No Action alternative)".
Apparently the DOE noticed the problem in time (1995), but it appears that a solution wasn't implemented quick enough.
"these isotopes are so important to preserving human life, why the hell don't we have more reactors in place to produce them?"
Because they are VERRRRRRRY expensive. And for the U.S.'s part, they haven't put a reactor online since 1996. Maybe they'll build some appropriate reactors after 2013 when Watts Bar 2 goes online (hopefully).
According to yesterday's interview on CBC's As It Happens, its not the world's supply, but rather the North American supply. In the past when the reactor has been down, the company that supplies the isotopes (Atomic Energy Canada Ltd runs the place, but another company produces the isotopes) buys isotopes from reactors in australia, south africa or Europe (holand I think). Its just this time they decide to make it a big issue. (so they don't have to pay for the isotopes). The interview in question is, I think, in part two of the broadcast... see: http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/AS_IT_HAPPENS/20071212.shtml The segment is: "ISOTOPES: KUPERMAN"
should read "the islands are not even barren."
Let's take a look at the advertising from the company that actually sells the medical isotopes made at Chalk River:
MDS Nordion is the global leader in the supply and distribution of short-lived medical isotopes. It's what sets us apart.
There's a "Molybdenum-99 Shortage Resource Center" page which has more useful background on the subject. There are about five places in the world that make this stuff, and not much excess capacity.
The U.S. Department of Energy started a project in 1995 to convert a research reactor at Sandia to medical isotope production. This was done after the last US commercial producer, in Tuxedo, NY, shut down. The Sandia effort was canceled, after it was working and able to produce isotopes, on July 30, 1999, by the Office of Isotope Programs at DOE.
There's a startup that claims they will start making this stuff with a linear accelerator in early 2008, but they sound flakey.
Sorry but as a Canadian I've never heard of anyone referring to Canada or the Canadian Government as CDN. Maybe "CDN Govt" but CDN itself is meaningless. Is it really so hard to type "Canada"? It's only 3 more letters than CDN.
And you only say that because you've been brainwashed into thinking that nuclear power is more dangerous than fossil fuel power.
Stupid Russians aside (and trust me, Chernobyl wasn't an accident--it was the direct, foreseeable result of extreme stupidity. Quick analogy: Its crappy design made it the Pinto of nuclear reactors, and then the operators in charge basically went around slamming on their brakes randomly until they got rear-ended and the fucking thing blew up), pollution from fossil fuels (including--*gasp!*--radioactive pollution) outweighs pollution from nuclear power by many orders of magnitudes. People die every day due to the direct effects of using fossil fuels (and this isn't a snide criticism of Iraq, though that argument could certainly be made as well.) They explode. And cause cancer and respiratory illness. And then there's the whole greenhouse gas thing. Three mile island, on the other hand, dumped enough radiation into the area that they calculated there is a 50% chance that one extra person died from cancer. Eventually. Years later.
You see, what people fail to grasp is how utterly surrounded they are by radiation. Have you ever watched television on anything other than a flat screen? If so, you've been staring directly into a cathode ray tube. Wanna know what a CRT really is? A particle accelerator. It's beaming beta radiation (and some side-effect X-Rays as well) directly into your eyes. They actually have to add lead to the glass in TV sets to prevent the radiation from reaching harmful levels. I am not making this shit up; every day, millions (if not billions) of knee-jerk anti-nuclear hippies sit around for hours and stare directly into a particle accelerator. (Yes, you can argue that the power levels and leaded glass makes it a pretty safe activity, but that's PRECISELY my point. Just because radiation is involved doesn't mean something is inherently dangerous. Radiation is a danger like high current electricity or poisonous chemicals are a danger. We're surrounded by all three, all of the time, yet sane design renders these things fairly safe.)
And, of course, almost everyone will (at least a couple times in their lives) suffer a radiation burn--more commonly known as a "sunburn". Many people suffer these radiation burns repeatedly, even though they (like all radiation exposures) cause cancer, and even though they're fairly trivial to avoid.
I'm not arguing that we should have a cavalier attitude towards nuclear power--just a little sanity and appropriateness. I don't know the specifics in this case, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the safety requirements were minor and/or highly redundant. Personally, I'd rather we get decent air filters put on our coal-burning plants first. They're far more of a threat to our well-being.
Don't know where you get your facts buddy, but last time i checked that regulator can't shut down anything just cause the liberal party wants it too for one.
secondly, i'll add it would not have occured had the Conservative gov't got its act together, much like the DMCA for canada they are out of touch with reality and are only in htings for business.
Stephen harpers gov't is incresingly looking like a bunch a despots trying to be bush #2.
Oh to mr baird ya loved how he used to mention USA, Australia , and the quiet no longer mention of australia who has ratified kyoto. Funny how osme places in our own country have met kyoto targets just baird can't get targets unless its bribes to hire mayoral buddies in ottawa.
You're soaking in it...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The Chalk River reactor does supply energy to the power grid. It also makes money from the sale of isotopes; government or not, money matters. The reactor is also 50 years old.
During a routine 5-day maintenance shut-down, it was decided that the reactor needed some new safety features installed designed to protect during natural disasters. It doesn't sound as though there was a fundamental problem of immediate concern. Here is a better article on the subject.
-FL
I suspect that if Dr. House would simply stop ordering unnecessary tests, much of the medical isotope shortage could be avoided. The reactor only supplies 2/3 of the world's demand.
I'm sure with a little duct tape and elbow grease that plant can opened once again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_Demonstration
Yes I used to live in Deep River, and my father used to work in Rolphton. It's not the middle of nowhere contrary to popular belief.
I tried to think of a good sig, and this wasn't it.
BTW, I hated the title "CDN Forces Reactor online ... " I didn't know the Canadian Armed Forces had any reactors! It should have been "Ottawa forces reactor online ..."
* This post should not be in any way construed as a legally binding cookie-delivery contract. But in the event that a cookie finds its way into your possession, we reserve the right to take credit for it even if you purchased the aforementioned cookie yourself.
But think about it -- if one plant can supply that much of the world's supply, why would there be a whole bunch of them? I mean, a bit of redundant capacity would be nice at a time like this, but it's not like every nation should be able to produce it's own Mo-99 when one or two free-trade-inclined nations can make enough for everyone.
Former US President Jimmy Carter has been to the reactor site in question in the 1950s...Canada had their "3 Mile Island" in 1952 when the NRX Reactor at Chalk River had a partial core meltdown. At the time, Carter was a nuclear engineer with the US Navy, and had been training at Chalk River. After the explosion caused either by hydrogen gas, or steam, he was one of the 150 US servicemen who helped clean up the reactor.
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
i guess you've never been with a woman giving birth
with that attitude, i can see the clawmarks from her fingernails in your shoulder already after saying "no hurry at all honey, we'll just wait for a cab"
if with that atittude you get as far as actually impregnating a woman
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Hum, when did the Canadian military get nuclear reactors?
If he does Homer Simpson better not be the Safety Inspector.
is that MDS made a screw up (suprise, suprise). What happened is that this reactor was supposed to shut down by now, with a brand new replacement reactor online to replace it. Somehow MDS managed to screw up the design of the new reactor so when it went online it didn't produce enough Molybdenum-99 (I don't know the exact details, but apparently it was 2-3 time less than the old one). So in expectation of the new reactor coming online, they decided to forgo any safety upgrades on the old one to save money. But now they need to run the old one until they figure out how to modify the new one. So this is where CNSC comes in. They visited the reactor last year and gave MDS a deadline to fix the safety issues, but MDS ignored it thinking that the reactor will be offline by the time the deadline passes. CNSC as a newly independent body decided to flex its muscles and force a shutdown. So Canadian government really had to step in into a situation they had no control of, since they were assured by MDS that the reactor would be off by now and replaced by a new one. BTW, it's not like the reactor will be used for much longer anyways, as soon as the issues with the new reactor are fixed, the old one is going off, as is more expensive to operate.
See, ok that Canadians have a free universal better-than-ours healthcare system, also they have a communist free high-quality universal better-than-ours educational system from kindergarten to university.
But, activating a nuclear reactor against IAEA recommendations I think that is way too much.
If they were Iranians and not Canadians we will probably be bombing them back to stone age right now...
So, I propose: Let's declare war to Canada! At least is closer than Iraq, so Army kids can be home for dinner...
In other words, the fox is now running the hen house.
Time at risk arguments are used in the nuclear business all the time but they should never be used lightly. What is the probability of an earthquake occurring in the next 120 days (the period that AECL was granted to operate by the law ammendment)? Probably low. What are the consequences if it does without a reliable seismically qualified source of power for the cooling pumps? Very high.
What is troubelsome is the precedent here. Let's say, one of Ontario's many multiple unit stations is discovered to have a similar deficiency, in the middle of February. Does the government step in to keep the lights and heat on in the middle of winter at risk of a nuclear accident.
The CNSC doesn't shutdown reactors or prevent them form restarting lightly. The move here represents a complete undermining of their expertise and authority as defined by Canadian Law. What now stops industry from lobbying government to overturn decisions made by the CNSC?
From the Nuclear Safety and Control Act:
8. (1) There is hereby established a body corporate to be known as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. (2) The Commission is for all its purposes an agent of Her Majesty and may exercise its powers only as an agent of her Majesty.
9. The objects of the Commission are a) to regulate the development, production and use of nuclear energy and the production, possession and use of nuclear substances, ... in order to i) prevent unreasonable risk, to the environment and to the health and safety of persons, associated with that development, production, possession or use.
-ConcernedPregnancy != emergency.
Sure, it's exciting, but it's not a life threatening "I'll die if I don't get medical attention in 10 minutes" thing. Nature is really good at making sure there are plenty of humans successfully pushed out to... uh... join Greenpeace, shun cars and heedless consumption, and preserve the planet for the next exponentially large generations. Yeah.
you had me at #!
This reactor is a critical source of necessary nuclear medical material. The material has a very short life, requiring a relatively fresh and constantly replenished supply for it to be of any use in diagnosis; basically measured in days.
Somebody at the Nuclear Regulatory agency figured out that the reactor was never designed to survive earthquakes, and the catastrophic fires that such earthquakes often cause. They decided that this is, at this very moment and not a second later, a critical safety feature that must be implemented without delay in this reactor that makes critical medical isotopes and has for many years, with an enviable safety record. This despite the area where the reactor is located is, at least from the geological record, the seismic data, and the reasonable predictions based on both sets of data, in an area where earthquakes are, to put it mildly, rare.
One could argue that these unlikely events are none the less critical, and merit the shutdown of the reactor for immediate remedial work. Safety first, and all that.
This leaves the question as to why such a critical source of critical medical material would be ordered shut down without notifying anyone in the entire nation of Canada who happens to be in the medical field, which is what happened.
Health Canada found out about the lack of isotopes when the doctors of the nation's hospitals called and asked what the hell is going on.
The doctors in the nation's hospitals found out about the lack of isotopes when they walked into the nations hospitals, viewed the nation's patients wearing the nation's hospital gowns, and asked where this morning's delivery of the nation's isotopes were. They asked the nation's delivery people. They said they didn't get any to deliver.
So, a few weeks before Christmas the nation's sick took off the hospital gowns and headed home, no diagnosis in hand. No problem; most of these people are only worried about Cancer. There's plenty of time to get started on that, maybe next year.
The Ottawa region also happens to be where the National Government is located, which gives rise to a certain conflict; on one hand I wish the certain bureaucrats within the government would suffer the consequences of a huge shakeup, so to speak, yet that may damage the reactor. If you understand the phrase "be careful what you ask for, because you might get it" then we're on the same page.
Alas, even the omnipotent must sometimes admit defeat. So, no orders for earthquakes will come from the heavens today. Sigh.
Well, if I understand the concept of "half-life" properly, they can keep it indefinitely - assuming they have a large enough beginning stockpile.
Half-life refers to the amount of time required for half the material to cease radiating. So if you want something with a half-life of 6 hours to last for 12 hours, you simply gather twice as much. Of course, if you want to have a pound of it after a week, you'll need 67,108.864 TONS in your initial stockpile.
Let me do the math for you:
To have 1 pound of still radiating isotope after 168 hours (7 days), you would need 134,217,728 pounds of initial stockpile. Never mind the problems inherent in finding a place to store 100 million + pounds of radioactive isotope... finding and refining your one pound chunk of still radiating isotope in a hundred million pounds of lead would take more time than your one-pound chunk would have left before it became a one-ounce piece, instead. To quote the guy in "Falling Down" (good flick, btw).. "Not Economically Viable"
Assuming they use an ounce in a week's time (micrograms per application, and halflives again), they might be able to get away with using their initial 134 million pounds for 2 weeks.
Moral of the story: stockpiles of a 6-hour half-life isotope are improbable. This reactor needs to go back online, STAT.
-FL
The scans aren't being postponed because the reactor was shut down longer than a week. They're being postponed because there is zero redundant production capacity in the world.
The arguments you've made, "it's not a power reactor", and "it's in the middle of nowhere" are relevant only to the "what happens to US if this reactor dies". They don't touch at all on the "what happens to those people who were relying on that production if this reactor dies".
You moan about people dying on a daily basis because a scan is postponed. How long would the shortage, and thus the lack of scans, go on if we had to build an entire new plant?
The problem isn't backup generators, the problem is seismically qualified backup generators. I gather that they are already on site, but it will take a bit of time to get them installed properly. It was planned to have them in by January, but the CNSC stepped in and said they couldn't restart without them.
/Canadian Nuclear engineer
CNSC is sticking to ever stiffening safety requirements. They are fulfilling their mandate.
I was a little concerned when I heard the first partial news on it. Now it seems that the govt was just allowing things to keep working as they were for a short period of time while AECL proceeds with the required work.
An extra month or two without a seismically qualified backup doesn't seem to be that much of an added risk to me.
A list of procedures currently on hold at the University of Iowa Hospitals and clinics:
hepatobiliary (HIDA) studies
bone scans
renal scans
ureteral reflux scans
lung ventilation/perfusion scans
brain perfusion/ viability
sentinel node lymphoscintigraphy
gastric emptying
gated blood pool (MUGA) cardiac scans
A quarter strength Technetium generator is incomming from South Africa, but this will not bring us back to full volume.
Funny editorial cartoon related to this. Probably only viewable via this link for http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/toon.php
...there is a discussion over building nuclear power plants, remember that the "WTF ATOMZ" rationale is not the only, or often the primary reason to oppose a reactor.
I personally have no problem with the idea of a nuclear reactor nearby, but I do have a problem with the flippant attitudes towards safety that have been exhibited by the authorities in charge of operating a number of nuclear facilities. "Yeah...we'll be OK, that should work. We've got money to make after all." has been the SOP time and time again. Usually, the lax safety procedures and outright mismanagement come to light long after the fact, everyone wipes their brow and says a little prayer in thanks that nothing more came of it.
then i would respect your opinion. if you don't, i don't care if you have 50 grandkids. the one who has the vagina has the only valid opinion on getting to the hospital in a hurry or not. and from my experience, they say you need to get in a hurry. case closed
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
This reactor is the only one of its design in Canada, it's the only one that is capable of "melting down", and it has been operational for over 50 years! In fact, it was the first to sustain a nuclear chain reaction outside of the USA and at that, it would have been the first in the world had the US government coughed up the graphic rods/blocks that the reactor required when the researchers asked to borrow them.
It's old. One of its cooling pumps needs to be replaced. If the other pump fails and the graphite rods that keep the reactor from going to critical mass overheat and are worn out, the reactor will melt down (or explode). If the building catches fire, tonnes of radioactive particulates will be sent into the atmosphere and spread throughout North America (and perhaps the world as well). This is not a candu reactor - it is possible to blow this puppy up, by design. As I said, it's old.
Fix the pump and no one will care how old it is, because at least the safety mechanisms that were designed into it would be functional. It's rather irresponsible to turn something of this nature back on without fixing it first. That's just common sense. They could have spent less time bickering and more time fixing the problem, but hey that's what we get from a "House of Commons" I suppose.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Chernobyl was a military reactor used for the production of plutonium. It had no containment dome, and an inherently dangerous design that caused reaction rates to increase as water started boiling. It was also in the middle of test that was known to be dangerous, and when the test ran long, the operators left it running as was without telling the night shift about it, so that when the test caused power output to drop, they overcompensated. It was also safety defficient in several other areas. Chernobyl has very little relevance to the current operation of western reactors.
The NRU has already operated safely for 50 years without this secondary backup (meaning there is already a primary system and a primary backup), and the safety record of the nuclear industry has improved since then, even on old reactors. It's overwhelmingly likely that this plant can operate safely for the 6 months they're suggesting it will take to get these secondary backups installed. Thousands of people will die the radioactive tracer scans and cancer treatments enabled by this reactor. An unknown number of people might die if an accident occurs.
Anyway, they've had plans to replace this reactor with two more dedicated soley to isotope production since 1996 (and therefore able to be optimized for safety and redundancy in that role). Each one can supply 100% of the worldwide demand and would act as backups for each other. However, there were some design issues found that the safety committee decided should be corrected. Hence, the NRU was relicensed for 5 more years, and these new MAPLE reactors are delayed until 2009.
Why do some of the best comments get missed by the moderators? There's a lot of people throwing a fit based on misguided perceptions.
Also to those asking why there aren't two reactors producing these isotopes: there are. Notice the article says NRU only produces 2/3 of the world's supply.
More precisely, NRU was a research reactor built in 1957. As they realized some of the rare isotopes it produced were medically useful, they incrementally increased its output of those isotopes to meet increasing demand, but as it was never a real issue, no one bothered to build a dedicated isotope production facility, they just started extracting them from other sources. As the group in charge of it started to look at shutting down the reactor in the 2005 time frame, they designed the MAPLE reactors to be a replacement. MAPLE 1 and 2 were finished just a couple years ago, but inspections revealed potential for enough sediments to accumulate to reduce the functionallity of the control rod mechanism, so some parts were redesigned and are being retrofitted before the CNSC will let them go online. This will happen next year. In the meantime, they relicensed NRU to run until 2011.
Either of the two MAPLE reactors will be able to supply 100% of the worldwide isotope demand, and will run as backups for each other.
"CDN Forces Reactor Online Against Safety Regulations"
Though this reactor is near a Canadian Forces base, it is not operated by the Canadian Forces. It's operated by a private company. I wish people would blaming the military for nuclear problems! They have nothing to do with this reactor. I don't think the military even has any nuclear reactors, unlike our neighbors down south.
Luckily, they actually produce Molybdenum-99, which has a liftime of 66hours, which, over 25 days only degrades by a factor of about 1-500
In other words, if they started out with a (probably still supercritical) stockpile of 1KG, they'd now be left with a bit less than a thimble-full (not including actual world-wide usage).
Add to this the fact that they only expected a, reasonably handleable, 1-week shutdown, (only a 1-3 degradation of Molybdenum-99) ... until they figured out that nobody bothered to install the emergency backup pumps when they originally built the plant ... and you've got a bit of a SNAFU.
Thus it is, that we've passed a law allowing the plant to run for a few months as-is ... and we're gonna pray that there'll be no need, in the interim, to run the (non-existent) emergency cooling pumps that nobody's notice were missing for the last 2 decades, anyways.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
If you want me to care about a specific instance of mis-management, I'm going to have to see some numbers first. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the total radioactive "contamination" was still less than that of a typical coal burning plant.
Well, I ignored it because it struck me as being a somewhat snotty counter to a challenge I didn't even think I'd made. But I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is all just another artifact of that weird internet filter which makes everything anybody ever types seem snottier than ever intended.
The plant was the Pickering Nuclear plant. I did a quick Google, and there is no specific mention of the press conference I recall, but there are dozens of references to the problems in question. I ran across these figures, but I don't know how accurate they are. . . "In 1997 Ontario Hydro revealed that it had failed to report tritium contamination of ground water at the Pickering nuclear generating station for the last twenty years (in 1979 it found 2,150,000 becquerels per litre (Bq/L) of tritium in ground water, and in 1994 it found 700,000 Bq/L)."
This report seems to have a lot of harder data, but I don't know anything about the author.
If you can put any new information on the table and put it into perspective, especially with regard to coal-fired stations, I would be very interested in seeing your results.
Cheers!
-FL
You're right...
You need to 'take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat,' Mr. Boisjoly.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia