DEEP RIVER, ONT. — From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008
He was a newcomer to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, a refugee from the Crown-owned nuclear facility at Chalk River who brought with him a sparkling bit of inside knowledge.
His colleagues were reviewing a set of safety upgrades, designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to modernize the NRU, the 50-year-old research reactor that supplies more than half of the world's medical isotopes.
"Staff in Ottawa were totally convinced that the [upgrades] were in," said one CNSC insider who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new man knew better: Not all the upgrades were done.
That bit of information - confirmed days later in November by AECL - launched a frenetic 10-week tussle between the company and Canada's independent regulator that led to the shutdown of the isotope-producing nuclear reactor, so vital in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and heart disease. Fearing an international crisis, the government intervened, overruled the regulator and ultimately fired its president, Linda Keen -- a move that stunned the global nuclear community.
Insiders suggest the firing was intended to distract attention from the ugly spill of evidence leaching from the dispute: At the dawn of the nuclear renaissance, with the appealingly green industry planning a series of multibillion-dollar projects, Canada's nuclear flagship is wobbling. If it falters, potential sales of the trademark Candu reactors to industrialized countries could be jeopardized, and the prospect of the Conservative government allowing AECL to.......
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/article668670.ece
Lachlan Cranswick - Australian scientist missing from Deep River, Ontario, Canada
Lachlan CRANSWICK
http://www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/LachlanCranswick.htm