Two emergency cooling pumps have been hooked up and are ready to go at the Chalk River nuclear facility, CTV News has learned.
The development comes one day after the former head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission stood by her decision to shut down the nuclear reactor after learning it had been operating without a backup emergency power system for cooling pumps for 17 months.
Linda Keen testified on Tuesday before a Commons committee looking into the shutdown of the facility that the safety risk at the reactor was 1,000 times higher than acceptable.
The shutdown led to a worldwide shortage of medical isotopes, until Parliament voted unanimously to override Keen's decision and restart the plant.
But CTV's David Akin reported Wednesday that the previously lacking emergency cooling pumps are now in place.
"I'm told one of those pumps was hooked up and running around Christmas time, the other pump has now been hooked up," Akin told Canada AM, citing sources.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which owns and operated the facility, has not yet confirmed the second pump is hooked up.
"But sources are telling us this morning that in fact it is hooked up and ready to go," Akin said.
"And that's important because yesterday Linda Keen...was telling MPs that without these emergency backup systems this plant wasn't safe enough, that it was in violation of some international safety standards."
The pumps are designed to prevent a meltdown of the reactor's core, in the event of a problem.
Akin said the Chalk River plant, which is shut down every 17 days or so for scheduled maintenance, should be back online by the weekend.
Earlier Wednesday, Health Minister Tony Clement said Keen's decision to shut down the plant was a massive error in judgment.
Clement said the risk to cancer and heart patients, who rely on medical isotopes, should have been the top priority.
"Quite frankly, the former head of the Nuclear Safety Commission, Linda Keen, got it spectacularly wrong," Clement told Canada AM on Wednesday.
"And even yesterday she refused to concede that her judgment was wrong on this, even though Parliament made that ultimate judgment on her."
The reactor, operated by the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), a Crown corporation, stopped production for scheduled repairs on Nov. 18 and was expected to restart within five days.
But the CNSC -- responsible for setting licensing, health and safety rules for the country's nuclear facilities -- refused to allow the reactor to restart after finding it had been operating without a backup emergency power system for cooling pumps for 17 months.
As a result, medical isotope stockpiles in Canada and the world began to dwindle, prompting MPs in the House of Commons to vote unanimously to restart the reactor and resume isotope production.
'Life and death'
During her testimony on Tuesday, Keen defended her actions and said Canadians shouldn't have to choose between nuclear safety and medical isotopes.
"Safety at a nuclear facility needs to meet the same high standards that we expect from a space shuttle or a jumbo jet," Keen said.
"The regulations the commission enforces and the standards it upholds are about far more than pushing paper. They're really about protecting lives. That's why when it comes to nuclear facilities, ignoring safety requirements is simply not an option."
But Clement said Canadian medical isotope supplies were down by 65 per cent by the time Parliament passed the bill to reopen the reactor, and the situation was quickly becoming dangerous.
"Our experts in the nuclear medicine field were telling us we were days away not only from annoyance factors for heart and cancer patients, but literally that it would be a life and death situation," Clement said.
When the risks were weighed, the decision was an easy one, he said.
"When you balance the risk -- which is remote to the nth degree -- of a nuclear accident occurring...with the risk to cancer patients and heart patients if nuclear isotopes were not available, Parliament did the right thing and we did it for the health and safety of Canadians."
But not everyone agrees. An article in the British magazine New Scientist, suggested Canada is setting a dangerous precedent that could be followed by nuclear countries such as Iran.
"The world is watching because Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is also a producer and exporter of nuclear technology," the editorial stated.
"Customers for its CANDU heavy water reactor include South Korea, China, India, Argentina, Romania and Pakistan. Canada is sending a dangerous message to these countries when it is prepared to undermine its own watchdog and compromise the protection of its workers and the public in order to keep one of its reactors open."
Auditor-General Sheila Fraser was first to appear before the committee Tuesday. She said the firing raised concerns about the independence of regulatory bodies.
