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."

Comments

Re:Bah!

[FireFury03]

I agree that the risks associated with ionising radiation are massively overstated by the media and public perception. However, that isn't an excuse for spreading misinformation.

Wanna know what a CRT really is? A particle accelerator. It's beaming beta radiation ... directly into your eyes.

This is completely incorrect. Even if that "beta radiation" (high velocity electrons) made it through the glass, they would be stopped by the air within an extremely short distance (unless you make a habit of watching TV in a vacuum?)

they (like all radiation exposures) cause cancer

This is _exactly_ the sort of misinformation that causes the idiotic "wifi causes cancer" scares. Your statement is completely wrong: ionising radiation exposure increases the risk of cancer. Nonionising radiation does not pose such a risk.

CDN Forces

[Bloggins]

Hum, when did the Canadian military get nuclear reactors?