Best Theratronics failed to maintain financial guarantee to decommission plant, says nuclear safety watchdog
A Kanata plant that manufactures equipment used to treat cancer can’t restart operations until the company proves it has a financial guarantee to decommission the March Road plant, says Canada’s nuclear safety watchdog.
Best Theratronics Ltd. must also provide a plan that “describes the measures it will take to ensure that resumption of operations can be done in a safe and secure manner, protective of the environment and the public,” said a decision released March 5 by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
The decision was released only days after workers who had been on the picket lines for almost 10 months got a new contract from the company, ending the strike.
On Feb. 28, the Canada Industrial Relations Board decided that Best Theratronics failed to bargain in good faith after receiving a complaint from Unifor, the union that represented the workers, in June 2024. Twelve other workers who are members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) remain on strike.
The purpose of the financial guarantee is to provide for the safe disposal of high-risk sealed sources and licensed material. There’s no risk to the public or the environment stemming from the non-compliance around the financial guarantee order, said CNSC, which monitors nuclear licensees to ensure regulatory compliance and the safety of workers, the public and the environment.
“Best Theratronics remains authorized to possess and store nuclear substances and prescribed equipment,” said a CNSC spokesperson. “It is not authorized to transfer them. We can confirm that nuclear substances on site continue to be stored safely.”
Evening Update
According to the CNSC decision, signed by CNSC president Pierre Tremblay, Best Theratronics failed to maintain the financial guarantee, gave inaccurate reports to the CNSC about the validity of its financial guarantee and was inattentive to updating its preliminary decommissioning plan. That was cause for “significant concern.”
Best Theratronics, which manufactures external beam therapy units, blood irradiators, and cyclotrons for hospitals and medical research centres, is part of the Springfield, Virginia-based TeamBest Global Companies global empire headed by Krishnan Suthanthiran, who was born in India and graduated from Carleton University with a master’s degree in engineering.
Suthanthiran bought the company from MDS Nordion in 2007 for a reported $15 million. (In 2021, he said the company’s products are used by more than 2,000 cancer centers globally, but none in Canada.)
The CNSC issued Best Theratronics with a Class IB licence with no financial guarantee in place, according to a history outlined in the decision. The financial guarantee was to be in place by January 2015, but Best Theratronics failed to establish it, which led to an order being issued.
Best Theratronics then revised its preliminary decommissioning plan and proposed a financial guarantee of $1.8 million. In July 2017, the CNSC accepted the $1.8-million guarantee in the form of letters of credit from two banks, one for $236,000 from BMO and one for $1,564,000 from ICICI.
Best Theratronics was to submit an updated preliminary decommissioning plan to the CNSC in 2022, along with an updated financial guarantee.
In October 2024, CNSC staff received confirmation from ICICI that the letter of credit for $1.564 million had expired in 2021. CNSC staff had not received any notification from Best Theratronics about changes, said the decision, which noted that the ICICI letter of credit had a clause that would allow it to expire — without the CNSC being made aware of it.
The CNSC’s designated officer said Best Theratronics had reported in 2022 and 2023 that the $1.8-million guarantee was active and in place.
The expiry of the ICICI letter of credit had been “unexpected,” and Best Theratronics had been unable to reinstate it with ICICI, a representative told the CNSC. The representative acknowledged that Best Theratronics had reported that the financial guarantee was in place in 2022 and 2023, when in fact it was not.
In a written submission to the CNSC, Best Theratronics said the 2017 financial guarantee was “excessive,” but recognized that the company was not in compliance with its licence and is required to update decommissioning cost estimates.
The designated officer assigned to the case by the CNSB said that based on inspectors’ observations of Best Theratronics’ current inventory of radioactive sources, “it would not be unexpected if the resulting review of the PDP (preliminary decommissioning plan) would lead to a higher financial guarantee being required.”
The Best Theratronics submission added that the restrictions about transferring products would “significantly and unduly” impact its business. The restriction is “punitive,” as it is not directly connected to the concerns identified in the order, and would not affect the safety of the facility, said the submission.
Meanwhile, in a separate order issued after a Nov. 8 inspection of the March Road facility, a CNSC inspector issued an order requiring Best Theratronics to put additional security and emergency preparedness measures in place.
The order was amended on Feb. 14 to reflect progress in addressing items raised in the original order, said CNSC. “All other information on the reasons for the order or on actions to be taken is considered sensitive security information and cannot be published.”
The amended order will be in place until Best Theratronics complies with the remaining actions. There is also no risk to the public or the environment stemming from this non-compliance, said the CNSC spokesperson.
A licensee may decide to further challenge orders, said the CNSC. However, orders are effective once they are issued and a licensee is required to comply with the conditions of the orders in the interim even if it is challenging them. Failure to comply can lead to further measures, including prosecution and licensing actions.
“The CNSC continues to actively monitor Best Theratronics to ensure regulatory compliance, including compliance with orders issued to the licensee,” said the spokesperson.
CNSC has no other financial guarantee orders dating back to 2021 other than the one issued to Best Theratronics.
Suthanthiran has claimed the Chinese government offered him nearly $100 million U.S. to move manufacturing from Canada to China, but he declined the offer. Now China has set up a similar operation and is aggressively competing with Best Theratronics, he said.
In an email to workers last May, Suthanthiran said MDS Nordion was about to shut down Theratronics before he purchased the division and because of “recent challenges” in manufacturing products at the Kanata plant, he was transferring the work to his other companies and outside contractors.
Suthanthiran did not respond to a request for comment from Postmedia.
Unifor did not respond to questions about what this means for the workers who have just ratified their contract.
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