The Long Reach of Retribution

Recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, through his Natural Resources Minister, pulled off some cloak-and-dagger shenanigans that are very troubling.

It's a bit of a complicated story, but it's important to understand.

In late November, Canada's nuclear plant at Chalk River had a scheduled routine shutdown for maintenance. The shutdown was extended because of safety concerns at the plant. The decision to extend the shutdown was made by the Nuclear Safety Commission. This Commission is a government entity that ensures the safety of the nation's nuclear operations. It operates at arm's length from the day-to-day shifting political windbags. Er, winds.

The shutdown was expensive and embarrassing for some Canadians, because Chalk River is the world's largest supplier of isotopes used in nuclear medicine. Without those isotopes, many diagnostic procedures can't be performed. Canada sold those isotopes around the world, and the lack of available isotopes (which can't be stockpiled; they have a limited shelf life) could have seriously affected global public health.

As would an unsafe nuclear reactor, with extensive and known safety problems that required a better fix than engineers could make from chewing gum and tinfoil. But that's another story, and apparently less important to the health and safety of Canadians, because in December, Parliament forced the Chalk River plant to reopen.

Basically, the Canadian government overruled its own scientific and technical expertise. Unanimously, too--the opposition parties voted right along with the party in power to do this.

Curious. Why even have scientists--experts--responsible for public safety if you're going to ignore them? Has Canada been paying attention to its neighbour to the south, whose leading scientists have been leaving important regulatory agencies--such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (responsible for the debacle in the aftermath of Katrina)--in droves?

Here's some more background. The Chalk River facility is operated by a Crown Corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. A Crown Corporation is one of those public-yet-not-public entities that is operated like a business and is open to external investment yet also has some funding and oversight by the Canadian government. Canada Post, another federal Crown Corporation, is simply a federal delivery service. In mid-December, the head of Atomic Energy of Canada resigned (appropriately) as a result of criticism of his management of the Chalk River facility.

And now, back to the cloak-and-dagger shenanigans. The Nuclear Safety Commission is responsible for the safe operation of Canada's nuclear facilities. The President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission during this time, and thus one of the people responsible for extending the Chalk River shutdown in November, was named Linda Keen.

I say "was" not because she changed her name, but because she is no longer President of the Nuclear Safety Commission. She was fired by the Natural Resources Minister in a 10 p.m. phone call the night before she was scheduled to testify before a committee of the House of Commons. Because she was fired, she didn't appear the next day, although the press release announcing her firing indicates she at first intended to.

So much for operating at "arm's length." That's a mighty long reach.

Although the Harper government alleges she was "incompetent," and therefore should be fired, they allowed her to stay on the Board. Huh? AND, although they say that she, as President of the Nuclear Safety Commission, was responsible for ensuring the long-term safe supply of isotopes, the government is only now amending the language about the Nuclear Safety Commission to make it clear that they consider that entity to be responsible. I guess she was just supposed to divine her responsibilities somehow. Curiouser and curiouser.

Not only that, but the Nuclear Safety Commission doesn't have money. They can't give Atomic Energy of Canada any cash to fix the safety problems at Chalk River. The government in power--which currently has enough money to cut the federal sales tax and give out tax freebies like candies--is responsible for allocating those funds. Safety problems don't crop up overnight. Where has the attention of this government--and the previous Liberal government--been while equipment has been failing?

Although it's true that I'm a bit of an idealist, I long ago gave up the illusion that the scientists and engineers in public policy positions don't have to "be political." In fact, scientists and engineers in public policy positions are supposed to "be political," and it's the area of their job that they fail at, resoundingly and spectacularly.

Scientists and engineers in public policy circles may have PhDs and know a lot, but as a group, they stink at showing lawmakers the inevitability of scientific fact and the limitations of technology--nuclear facilities deteriorate, safety is always an issue, and you can't just ignore it and hope it goes away.

Of course, politicians must also be intelligent enough to understand that science does have absolute laws and that technology really does have those limits mentioned above--for example, nuclear facilities deteriorate. However, it seems to be the trend in politics today to consider science to be made up of "theories," and therefore no more valid than other "theories," or wishes, or hopes and dreams, like maybe if we ignore safety problems at a nuclear reactor, they'll go away. Technically, I suppose safety problems could simply disappear--but Chernobyl-like, in a mushroom cloud, along with many of the rest of us.

And if Stephen Harper or one of his minions wants to call Linda Keen in the middle of the night to debate evolution vs. creationism, more power to him. I'd advise her to get caller I.D. and let the machine pick up, but whatever.

But please, politicians, stop the shenanigans, hang up your cloaks, and put away your daggers. Listen to your scientists, our scientists, even when you don't like what they have to say. Our lives, and those of our children, depend on it.