Maybe the NRC and the private company in Canada responsible for the Maple reactors intended to replace the NRU for research and producing medical isotopes can use this to figure out why the reactor is not behaving as expected and determine whether it is safe or can be made so with modifications. The failure of Maple 1 and 2 to come on-line as planned (they’re currently officially mothballed with no plans to bring them on-line) has been a huge blow to the world production of medical isotopes as the NRU has also been down for maintenance and rehabilitation. Reactor design is still not an exact science, due to its complexity, as described in this article.
I think that you are on to something.