The CNSC Story - Serious Contemplation

How has it come to this? The whole CNSC mess has serious implications for those of us who want to see some nuclear plants get started, instead of all the Great Lakes filling up with windmills. I was hoping for some work sorting out the seismic inadequacies, but now the utilities can just thumb their noses and say "Who needs this earthquake shit?".

It wasn't always like this. When I started in 1979, the CNSC was quite active, and a respected organization. My older brother was glad to join and work there, and so were many others. Then the organization went a bit unstable, when they hired some certified weirdos in their "Research Department".

The CNSC always had a fundamental problem on how they fit in the world. They were nothing like the US NRC, which drafted up a zillion micro-management regulations that controlled every aspect of approvals. And each of these regulations were coded into law!

The CNSC (then the Atomic Energy Control Board) was above all that! They were a council of wise men (women), who would give their approval on licenses. The utilities would write up a comprehensive operating license on what they would do with this or that situation, and the CNSC would approve it (or not). The worse censure would be that you are 'in violation of your license'.

The old AECB knew that they were in the middle of a sandstorm. Get too nasty and you're shutting down vital power generation. Too loosey-goosey, and there will be an accident. They played the game quite well, and promoted the general use of nuclear power. The only time they ever shut down a reactor was a minor one in the spring, when there was no power demand. They would never shut down all of OPG during the winter (a real one!). But soon, many of the nuclear opponents would accuse them of being a 'poodle to the utilities'.

The AECB started feeling (and worrying about) the political pressures of the day, and this started their downfall. They started this independent 'Research Department', where they hired some real wackies. These people would go on to causing some real political problems with their accusations on how the utilities weren't doing this or that. The AECB started to sink into the tar.

All of a sudden, they fired these guys, and vowed never again to get into research, or thinking, in general. They would just be a regulator, and whipped up some new laws, and became the CNSC. This marked the starting of the end.

For the CNSC was now a totally political body. Nobody was building any more nuclear plants anyway. Without their protection of having to do something technical, the Ottawa guys now viewed this as a patronage plum. What could hurt by dumping in the loyal village idiots?

The final nail in the coffin came with Linda Keen. She was a total political power-person, and viewed the whole CNSC as her fiefdom. Anybody who caused trouble, or disagreed with her got fired, as well as anyone who was a threat. This had no effect on the nuclear business, so all was well.

During that time, I saw the entire CNSC disappear from my life. I was now in serious trouble in the company, since my main job was to merge the inside, with the outside licensing. The CNSC never mentioned earthquakes anymore. Unfortunately, the company just proceeded to do whatever it wanted on seismic design, much to my dismay.

Now, I wonder what really happened on the AECL reactor issue. The old AECB would have been too smart to get into this pickle. They would have demanded a scheduled close-out for the rusty reactor, and prevented the dumping of cheap isotopes, in order to make it 'vital'. They would have got political backing.

I have to think that the staff hated Keen so much that they set her up. Or else, they passively turned off thinking, which amounts to the same thing. They suddenly wouldn't allow the restart of the reactor, which is the same thing as shutting down Darlington for bad battery racks (which I wanted at one time!). They knew it would cause a giant political disaster, and they didn't warn her.

Now, things are worse. The CNSC has been totally destroyed, and they are replacing Keen with another clone. There will be no serious action on new power plants. If there is, I'd be seriously worried!

What can we do here? I'd advocate totally wiping out the CNSC and replacing them with some serious CSA standards bodies that actually do some work. They would be totally open in everything they do, and truly be a place that intelligent people flock to.

Of course, as with everything I suggest, it is politically impossible. But if the only 'politically possible' solutions are disasters, then, eventually, things come to a head. Perhaps we should be happy for a big recession to slow things down a bit.