Harper's Nuclear Gamble

Obviously when word of the Chalk River shutdown, and the resulting shortage of isotopes for Cancer tests was announced on December 5 everyone was concerned. Cancer has become a worldwide epidemic and the thought of people dying because their cancer wasn't diagnosed was unacceptable.

But when we talk about "unacceptable" nothing comes much higher on the list than a nuclear accident and if it were to occur it would no longer really be an accident, it would be someone's falt. The chair of Atomic Energy of Canada, Michael Burns, resigned today over the restarting of the plant, possibly to ensure that it won't be his fault.

"The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission had advised against restarting operations until a raft of maintenance work was complete, and declared that the plant was in violation of its license. The necessary upgrades were only half complete, the nuclear safety watchdog said."

By overriding the concerns of those in charge of nuclear safety Harper has scored a few points, possibly, with those concerned about cancer. By dismissing the concerns of the regulator though Harper takes full responsibility for the outcome - should anything go wrong at chalk river, cancer rates in Ontario and Quebec will surely go through the roof - and that would be the least of our concerns.

Harper has rolled the dice with a nuclear plant that Canada's nuclear regulator found to be unsafe. As much as I would like to see Harper out of office and his party in ruins - if you have anyone that you regularly pray to, pray that he is right on this one.