Citing time pressures from the federal government, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall Monday said his government will prepare a proposal for a nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes, even before public consultations about uranium development have wrapped up.
"There's not, unfortunately, a lot of time for this, given the now emergent necessity for Canada to deal with an isotope situation," Wall told CBC News on Monday, referring to a shortage of nuclear material used for medical purposes.
Wall emphasized that any proposal for a reactor would include a proviso that public input on the issue would be factored into the final decision.
Wall said federal officials want to see a proposal around the end of July. That would be several weeks ahead of his receiving a report on public thoughts about uranium from Dan Perrins, who is chairing the public consultation process.
That has some participants in the consultation process wondering whether their views will be taken seriously.
"It's really disheartening вЂ" it's almost as though a decision has been made," said Sinda Cathcart, who was making a presentation in Regina to the consultation commission on behalf of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
"Are the public consultations going to carry a whole lot of weight?" Cathcart asked.
Sandra Morin, a member of the opposition NDP in the provincial legislature, doesn't think so.
"He [Wall] says the decision to build this reactor is going to be done by August," Morin said Monday. "Well, the people in these consultations are saying that we need more information вЂ" we need to slow things down вЂ" and here we are moving bullet speed train ahead."
According to a government-commissioned report released by Saskatchewan to provide a starting point for its consultations, the development of a nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes is not economically viable, if done for only that purpose.
The report said a research reactor that also produced medical isotopes would make sense. However, it cautioned that Saskatchewan would have to overcome shipping-time issues because isotopes do not last a long time.
