An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, the view of the commission is that, as Mr. Howden has said, if AECL supplied a complete safety case and a licence amendment, and the licence amendment is very straightforward, had the staff review it, and called the commission together on an emergency basis, all of which we are prepared to do to help out in this crisis, it would take, if the safety case were complete, approximately a week.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, as I said in my opening statement, there are no nuclear facilities in Canada that are not regulated by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. My interpretation of this clause as an expert is that AECL would be self-regulating its own reactor and that it would not be under this.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, because this is an unprecedented case and there is no unregulated facility in Canada, the CNSC has been looking at exactly what that impact would be. In fact, would we have, for example, site staff? Would we have experts that would be available? It is not clear that we would be having regulatory control and regulatory review of this reactor at all during these 120 days.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I would like to start by saying that after the safety case and the request for a licence amendment are made, then the CNSC staff will analyze this. I will ask Mr. Howden to give an estimate of that. An application is then put before the tribunal. We can put the tribunal together in 24 hours for a licence amendment to hear this.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I would also like to add that what we are talking about is an industry standard that we would require of any research reactor in Canada. I talked today with my colleague from the United States, Chairman Klein of the NRC in the United States, and he said that he is fully in agreement with us requiring the two pumps for the safety and for licensing in the United States as well.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I received a very preliminary copy. I do not know if it is the final copy or not. I have had some preliminary reviews of this.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, this is a question that is best addressed by AECL as to where the safety case is. We have made it clear in a letter to Dr. Torgerson that we awaiting the safety case. If I may, I would like to ask Mr. Howden, who has been on site, to answer any specifics on this matter.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  What we require, Mr. Chair, is one of two things. The current safety case before the commission, which AECL submitted to us, required the two pumps to be installed before the reactor started up. AECL would like to put a new safety case before us and the real part of the safety case is one pump instead of two.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I was chair at that time we were looking at this renewal. The fact that it was a 50 year old reactor made the CNSC request very specific upgrades that were in line with modern standards. These are international modern standards for reactors. The safety case that AECL developed and the CNSC looked at had seven specific areas of safety upgrades.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, the CNSC has site staff that perform regular reviews of this. It was scheduled that we would be looking at this facility during this November shutdown and would be doing an overview of all the systems. However, I must emphasize that the Nuclear Safety and Control Act requires that the licensee is responsible for the safety of this facility.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, in fact, the CNSC is not in any way at loggerheads with AECL. We have staff that are on site. We also have had teams from Ottawa, specialists, coming out. We have been available 24/7. Our executive vice-president has received calls from Dr. Torgerson, who is scheduled to be a witness here today.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I thank the House for the invitation to be here today. I am pleased to come before committee of the whole to discuss with members the important role of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is to assure the health, safety and security of Canadians and the protection of the environment under our legislation, which was given to us by Parliament, the Nuclear Safety and Control Act.