Isotope Shortage Spurns Canadian Agency Chief
In light of the recently publicized isotope shortage secondary to the closure of a nuclear reactor facility in Canada, the Canadian federal government fired the standing President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). News of the firing was published by Health Imaging.
Linda Keen was fired and temporarily replaced by Michael Binder. Mr. Binder, who was an Assistant Deputy Minister in the Department of Industry, will serve as the interim president of the Commission. News of Dr. Binder’s appointment was described on the CNSC website. It is expected that Ms. Keen will stay on Commission as a Commissioner with the CNSC.
The November closure of the Chalk River nuclear reactor was been blamed on Ms. Keen. The closure was previously reported on HospitalBuyer, as was the forced re-opening by the Canadian legislature.
Dr. Binder completed a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Alberta. His most recent post was Assistant Deputy Minister of Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications. In this role, he has been overseeing the transition to a network economy.
During the month-long period that preceded Dr. Binder’s appointment, animosity has been growing between CNSC and the Atomic Energy of Canada, Limited (AECL). AECL is the primary nuclear operator across the country.
The facility requires a safety update, according to previous reports from the CNSC. The AECL claims that CNSC was aware that safety updates were required but failed to act. Moreover, AECL claims that misleading information was shared with the public when the emergency shutdown was deemed necessary. The nuclear company argues that the outage could have been prevented if steps had been taken earlier.
February 7, 2008 Related topics: People, Quality, Safety, Errors