Critics urge against AECL reactor purchase after isotope crisis

The Ontario government should think twice about buying nuclear reactors from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. after the company's delays in building two new reactors helped create a worldwide shortage of isotopes for medical diagnosis, nuclear critics say.

The province announced in June 2006 that it plans to build two new nuclear power plants, and it hired consultants in May to study the available options, including one of AECL's reactor models.

'The radio isotope shortage we have today may be an electricity shortage in the next decade.' — Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Greenpeace

AECL, a Crown corporation, was recentlyin the spotlight after the House of Commons went against the advice of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and passed emergency legislation on Dec. 11 to reopen AECL's Chalk River reactor.

The reactor usually produces two-thirds of the world's medical isotopes, but had been shut down for repairs, causing a worldwide shortage of theisotopes, whichcannot be stored for very long.

Critics have argued the isotope shortage could have been avoided if Maple 1 and 2, two new AECL reactors that were to produce medical isotopes, had been completed on schedule in the early part of the decade.

Instead, they are not yet online.

That doesn't reflect well on the company, said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, energy and climate campaigner with Greenpeace.

"AECL has failed to build two small reactors in its own backyard on time and on budget," he said. "The radio isotope shortage we have today may be an electricity shortage in the next decade."

Gordon Edward, a spokesman for the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, said the cause of the Maple reactor delays is itself a concern.

"They haven't been able to get them going, not because they don't work, but because they're not safe enough," he said.

AECL vice-president Jerry Hopwood said the problems with the Maple reactors do not point to problems down the road with the advanced Candu reactors it is trying to sell Ontario.

Hopwood said those ACR reactors, as they are called, are very similar to the ones already producing 50 per cent of Ontario's power.

"ACR is an evolutionary design based on a very limited number of innovations," he said.

Ontario Minister of Energy Gerry Phillips said he would prefer to buy Canadian reactors, butwill choose the best technology at the best price that offers the least risk to taxpayers.

He is expected to make a decision on the technology next year.