OTTAWA – During testimony today by medical experts on the health implications of the medical isotopes shortage at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, Liberals released the following timeline of Conservative nuclear mismanagement:
1957 – The federal government put the National Research Universal (NRU) nuclear reactor into operation in Chalk River. In addition to producing medical isotopes, the NRU was the early testing ground for CANDU reactor technology and fuels now used in Ontario's nuclear power plants.
1996 – Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) begins construction of two MAPLE reactors and a processing facility at the Chalk River Laboratories in order to produce medical isotopes. These reactors are designed to replace the NRU reactor in the production of isotopes for the health industry.
July 2006 – The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) issues a licence to AECL for the continued operation of the NRU based upon assurances that safety upgrades were completed.
Fall 2007 – The Auditor General described the NRU as “nearing the end of its useful life.”
November 2007 – CNSC learns that safety upgrades have not been completed and confirms disconnect between the licence condition and physical condition of the NRU reactor based on AECL reports. A regularly scheduled shutdown of the NRU is extended by AECL while modifications are made.
December 5, 2007 – The government learns of an impending medical isotope shortage due to the extended shutdown of NRU.
December 8, 2007 – Despite safety concerns, the government orders CNSC to approve start-up of NRU in violation of both national and international law relating to nuclear regulations.
December 10, 2007 – CNSC head Linda Keen refuses to restart before changes are made “in order to avoid a fuel failure resulting in potential radioactive releases into the environment."
December 11, 2007 – Ignoring these warnings, a directive is issued by Governor-in-Council to restart NRU reactor immediately.
Facing criticism over unsafely restarting the NRU, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attacks nuclear watchdog Linda Keen, stating “Liberals should stop protecting their appointee and get on with getting these medical isotopes produced.”
Health Minister Tony Clement justifies federal action due to the shortage of medical isotopes, stating, “This shortage has resulted in an intolerable situation in which cancer and heart disease treatments and diagnostic tests are being delayed or cancelled.... If the shortage goes on any longer, it will have a serious impact on public health in several provinces. We are already seeing some of the effects.”
December 16, 2007 – The Chalk River nuclear reactor is returned to service despite not having fully addressed safety concerns from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
January 8, 2008 – Ms. Keen publicly accuses Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn of improper interference with the CNSC’s independence.
January 15, 2008 – On the eve of her appearance at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Minister Lunn fires Ms. Keen as President of the CNSC.
January 29, 2008 – Former CNSC President Linda Keen tells the Natural Resources committee that the nuclear reactor at Chalk River was 1,000 times less safe than Canadian and international standards, meaning if she had allowed the reactor to restart operations, she would have been in violation of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act.
May 2008 – Following a decision from the Conservative government, AECL discontinues work on the MAPLE reactors, shutting down a potentially viable alternative for isotope production.
February 15, 2009 – The NRU reactor has another unscheduled outage to repair the mechanism to extract medical isotope rods from the reactor.
February 22, 2009 – AECL informed the CNSC that another small leak of 18 kg of heavy water was discovered at the NRU reactor.
May 20, 2009 – Another heavy leak is discovered at the NRU as a result of power outage, resulting in a shutdown and estimated to last until the end of August, 2009 and sparking a worldwide isotopes shortage. Critics and stakeholders call for a plan to deal with the ageing Chalk River facility and ensure a secure medical isotope supply for Canadians.
June 1, 2009 – In contrast to testimony in December, 2007, when the first shutdown created an “intolerable situation” and any shortage would “..have a serious impact on public health,” new Conservative Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq stated, “Many tests can be completed using other options” and the federal government was working on a plan.
June 10, 2009 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper says “Canada will be out of the business” of making medical isotopes. The next day, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson says AECL is a “dysfunctional,” “$30 billion... sinkhole” that will not get any more funding for a new isotope producing reactor. Canada’s nuclear scientists decry the decision to stop producing isotopes as “short-sighted.”
June 15, 2009 – The President of the international Society of Nuclear Medicine, Robert Atcher, says the shutdown of Canada's Chalk River reactor last month is forcing "several thousand" heart and cancer scans a day to be cancelled or moved to the United States, adding, "The patient community is facing one of its greatest threats in modern times."
July 8, 2009 – The government announces the Chalk River reactor will remain closed for the rest of 2009. The prolonged shortage leads to an unprecedented two-thirds of world capacity as three out of four of the world’s regular medical isotope producing reactors re out of operation.
September 12, 2009 – Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt says it is expected that the NRU reactor will remain idled into March, 2010.
October 19, 2009 – Dr. Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine, stated that his organization “is extremely concerned by the significant decrease—from 10% to 25%, depending on the region—of patient referrals for nuclear cardiac and oncologic tests... What we now see is referring physicians not sending their patients. So the diagnoses will be at a later stage and the cancers and cardiac disease will have progressed by then. So at the end of day, the patient is losing in all of this and society is losing because it’s going to cost much more money.”
November 18, 2009 – In a video released by a group of stakeholders, Dr. François Lamoureux, president of the Quebec Nuclear Medicine Association, says that "without any warning we tell them (the world) that Canada is pulling out and by doing so launched an international crisis that Canada is directly responsible for from the start."