Canada set to order restart of isotope reactor

Canada set to order restart of isotope reactor
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian Parliament was set tooverrule the country's nuclear watchdog on Wednesday and ordera reactor that makes crucial radioisotopes for cancer tests berestarted immediately.
The Chalk River reactor -- which makes more than two-thirdsof global supply of the medical isotopes -- was shut down inNovember, quickly triggering shortages.
The Conservative government, under heavy political pressureto solve the problem, is pushing through legislation that willallow the reactor to resume operations for 120 days.
This would involve using back-up safety systems, an actionthat the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says is unsafe.
The House of Commons approved the bill on Tuesday night andthe Senate is expected to follow suit on Wednesday.
Once the reactor is restarted it will take three or fourdays before operator Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd can begindelivering isotopes. When injected into the body, the isotopesgive off radiation that can be seen by a camera to diagnosecancer, heart disease and other medical conditions.
Government ministers insist there is no danger inrestarting the reactor now.
"This was always an issue of public interest and it was theright thing to do. We've had absolute reassurance that we couldresume production of medical isotopes, and 100 percentassurances of safety and that's what our goal was all along,"Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn told Reuters.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper strongly criticized nuclearcommission boss Linda Keen on Tuesday, saying she was beingunreasonable, but Keen did not change her opposition to thegovernment's plan.
"This provides significant risk not only to the reactor butto the employees and the communities that live around thisreactor," she told a special meeting of legislators late onTuesday night.
At least one medical specialist hailed the emergency move,saying it would be welcomed by hospitals everywhere.
"This is a crucial thing, a great Christmas present for us,for sure," said Dr Andrew Ross, a nuclear medicine specialistin the eastern Canadian city of Halifax.
"We have been living day to day," he told the CanadianBroadcasting Corp. on Wednesday.
AECL, the government-owned nuclear technology company thatoperates the reactor, had earlier said it would not be back tofull output until early to mid-January.
But on Tuesday it said "heroic efforts" by staff meant thefacility could be restarted on December 20 without having toresort to the back-up safety procedure.
Chalk River produces medical isotopes for Canadian healthcare company MDS Inc and its MDS Nordion division, which isresponsible for about 50 percent of world supply.
(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by RobWilson)