MAPLEs Shutdown Prematurely: Scientists

The head of the MAPLE engineering team, as well as several independent nuclear scientists appearing before the NR Commons Committee, were united yesterday in their opinion that shutting down the MAPLE reactors was a mistake, and that they should be restarted.

The money quote:

"We were probably four months away from putting the final test in. That test would have contained the engineering fix."

Meanwhile, Lisa Raitt is starting to back peddle a bit from the government's official position that the MAPLEs should be completely written off. Of course, this isn't keeping her from continuing to promote the keystone of her party's ideology: Privatize Everything.

Ms. Raitt told reporters yesterday that the government would consider allowing a private company to take over the MAPLE project. "There are pieces that are not the reactor that are still utilizable, with still-good infrastructure," she said.

Once again, what you are hearing is the sound of a government that doesn't believe in government. A government that believes that there is nothing government can do that private enterprise can't do better. A government convinced that financial profit is the only true barometer of value, regardless of the long term societal benefits of a given enterprise.

I can't wait for them to get around to Canada Post.

UPDATE: The always awesome David Akin has a quick & dirty summary on his blog of both the MAPLEs timeline and the testimony of those independent experts who testified today.