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AECL head resigns amid medical isotope controversy

OTTAWA _ The head of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. quit Friday in the wake of the fiasco that shut down the Chalk River nuclear reactor and prompted a worldwide medical crisis.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper accepted the resignation of AECL chairman Michael Burns, effective Dec. 31.

In a terse news release issued late Friday, Harper named a new chair, former Ontario senior bureaucrat Glenna Carr, as well as a new CEO, business executive Hugh MacDiarmid.

And more heads may yet roll.

Harper said earlier this week that he would ``carefully examine the roles of all actors'' in the month-long shut down of the aging reactor, which provoked a critical shortage of radioisotopes used in diagnostic cancer and cardiology tests. The Chalk River reactor, owned and operated by AECL, produces half the world's supply of medical isotopes.

But Harper had also made it clear that the villain in the piece, as far as he was concerned, was the ``Liberal-appointed'' Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. He accused the commission of putting lives in jeopardy with its continued refusal to restart the reactor and he was particularly scathing about CNSC head Linda Keen, a career bureaucrat who insists she has no partisan affiliation.

It was surprising then, that the first person to go was a Tory appointee with extensive ties to Harper's Conservatives. Burns, a Tory fundraiser, was appointed chair of AECL by Harper's government only a year ago.

``Look who's incompetent and partisan now,'' chortled Liberal MP Omar Alghabra.

Alghabra said the removal of Burns vindicates the Liberal contention that AECL is primarily responsible for the fiasco.

The CNSC refused to allow the Chalk River reactor to be restarted after discovering last month that AECL had been operating it for 17 months without a back-up emergency power system for cooling pumps that prevent the reactor core from melting down. AECL had promised to install the power system as a condition for renewing the 50-year-old reactor's licence.

Parliament rushed through emergency legislation Wednesday to bypass the CNSC's objections and get the reactor back on line as quickly as possible. It is expected to be up and running again this weekend and producing isotopes by the middle of next week.

Environmentalists have also laid the blame squarely on AECL.

The Crown corporation has taken heat for breaching the safety conditions of its licence and for failing to inform the government of the extended reactor shutdown for more than two weeks. AECL is also years behind schedule and millions over budget in its plans for two new reactors to replace the current 50-year-old reactor at Chalk River.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May called Burns' departure ``extraordinary'' given Harper's previous targetting of the CNSC for blame.

She said it remains to be seen if Burns' departure amounts to an admission of AECL's ``gross incompetence'' or whether he's simply ``falling on his sword'' to save AECL further scrutiny.