I do believe that one of the things that was shocking to the commissioners...and not just to Linda Keen. I think anybody who reads the transcript will notice that Linda Keen, in her role as chair, gave the other commissioners ample opportunity to ask questions before she said a word. The other commissioners were quite shocked at the kind of attitude expressed by AECL toward the safety concerns.
I have to tell you that I was shocked myself this morning to hear Mr. McGee give such a complacent answer toward the so-called worst-case scenario. I think it's very important to realize that although Mr. McGee repeated over and over again that the plant was operating safely, that's not what these emergency systems are for. It's not about normal operation; it's about emergencies. So to say that it's operating safely, it's operating safely, it's operating safely is to have a complacent attitude toward what might go wrong.
One of the findings of the president's commission on Three Mile Island back in 1980, after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, was that the principal cause of the accident was overconfidence on the part of the operators that it was inherently safe. Until that attitude changes and they stop regarding it as inherently safe, there will be more such accidents.
I also strongly disagree with the description of the worst-case scenario. I'm sure Mr. McGee knows full well that in 1952, when the much smaller NRX reactor suffered a catastrophic accident, there was a series of explosions. It blew the roof off. The core of the reactor had to be buried on site somewhere. It was too radioactive for contact, even, with humans.
So I--