[Date Prev][Date Next]
[Chronological]
[Thread]
[Archive Top]
[cdn-nucl-l] " Experts urge government to replace nuclear reactor "
Jaro,
I don't see why NRU should not continue to operate for another 50 years.
It's a very safe and reliable reactor, especially after the upgrades.
Of course, additional reactors should be build at Chalk River---not only for
radioisotopes, but for many R&D purposes.
We are entering a nuclear renaissance, and the national laboratory should be
funded adequately for all the necessary tasks ahead.
We need to develop advanced fuel cycles. We need to work on fast breeder
reactors too. We need someone with a vision who can make all the right
things happen.
Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jaro" <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca>
To: "multiple cdn" <cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA>
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 7:21 AM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] " Experts urge government to replace nuclear reactor "
> http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=fc90a5f2-15c7-424f-
> a66e-351a2a50578c
> Experts urge government to replace nuclear reactor
> DAVID AKIN, Canwest News Service, 29 July 2008
>
> A panel of experts says the federal government needs to find a replacement
> as fast as possible for the aging nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont.,
> that
> produces more than half of the world's medical isotopes, a vital resource
> used to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases.
>
> "Canada needs reactors that are designed to expand their production
> capabilities quickly in response to an emergency," the panel says in a
> report it submitted to federal Health Minister Tony Clement.
>
> Clement convened the 10-member panel of medical experts in December
> shortly
> after the Chalk River reactor was shut down by its operator, Atomic Energy
> of Canada Ltd. (AECL), because it believed it could not meet safety
> standards administered by the federal regulator, the Canadian Nuclear
> Safety
> Commission.
>
> The shutdown sparked a global medical crisis and forced Parliament to take
> the extraordinary step of over-ruling the safety commission to allow AECL
> to
> start up the reactor.
>
> The panel, whose primary concern as it examined the crisis and its
> aftermath
> was patient care, makes several recommendations to avoid shortages of
> medical isotopes and to better handle any crisis if the supply of isotopes
> is again interrupted.
>
> Avoiding a crisis altogether, the panel believes, starts with a
> made-in-Canada solution to replace or augment the supply of isotopes
> produced at the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River,
> just west of Ottawa.
>
> The NRU went into service in 1957 and is the world's oldest nuclear
> reactor.
>
> Though the NRU is licensed to operate to 2011, neither AECL nor the
> federal
> government has sketched out any long-term plan to find an alternative to
> the
> NRU.
>
-----------------