An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, the isotope production in Chalk River is not carried out by a Candu reactor. The NRU reactor is a research reactor. It is very different from a Candu reactor. In fact the NRU reactor was used to help develop the Candu reactor. Medical isotopes, such as the most import

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, this is correct. The isotope has a 67 hour half-life. Therefore we are able to meet the market requirements, but we have to of course realize there are also other supplies throughout the world and not all the reactors go down at the same time for scheduled maintenance.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, Cobalt-60 has a much longer half-life. Therefore when we make the Cobalt-60, it stays around for several years. Therefore, we have a good supply of cobalt. Cobalt is a wonderful material as was mentioned. It can sterilize food. It can sterilize medical supplies. It can

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I just want to go back to something that I said earlier and that is that NRU is a huge producer of medical isotopes. When we are running, we can supply all the isotope that is required in Canada and a large proportion of what is required in the United States. We have a

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, first of all, the use of medical isotopes and the isotope business is an area that was in fact pioneered in Chalk River. People in the early days of Chalk River developed the business, which is now a worldwide business. We have been producing isotopes currently in pro

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, these are deliberate stoppages. Every four weeks we shut the reactor down for about four days in order to do maintenance. This is regularly every four weeks.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, we have had stoppages in the past at Chalk River, but in the past we have had always ways of making up the isotope. We have had stoppages in Chalk River, but we have also been able to keep up the production of the isotopes. We have had the NRU reactor and the NRX both

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  See, Mr. Chair, we are cooperating very well. I would like to say that we respect our colleagues at the CNSC. I personally want to be regulated and I want to have a strong CNSC with skilled and talented people in it because that is an effective CNSC. Perhaps, because I am basic

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, we have operated the NRU reactor without either pump being hooked up to the new seismically qualified emergency power system. I should state to everybody and repeat what our chief nuclear officer said. These pumps in the past have had two different sources of power.

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I can, first of all, say that safety is number one. I chair many meetings within AECL, everything from the design of nuclear reactors all the way to the operations of the CRL facilities. The first question I ask every senior executive is, what can you tell me about saf

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, in my opinion, we have operated NRU in a safe facility before this shutdown. After we make the modifications that we are currently making to the pump, we will continue to operate it in a safe mode and I can assure everyone that that will be the number one priority. Is

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, yes, I am going to turn this over to my colleague in a minute, but I want to respond to an issue that was raised on item number 2, which I have read, that AECL may resume and continue the operation of the National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River only if it is

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, I am not going to really comment on licensing, but I would comment on safety. Our colleagues in the CNSC have stated that that reactor has been safe and it has operated safely up until the time that the reactor was shut down for its routine maintenance last month. W

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, we have submitted an application to the CNSC for permission to operate the reactor with one pump hooked up to the EPS. The commission has taken that case under consideration and it has come back with some additional information that it would like AECL to provide. We b

An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River  Mr. Chair, yes, I can provide the assurance that we will operate NRU safely. That is our number one task. There is nothing more important than operating NRU safely. We believe we can operate it safely. We have made a safety case that says that we can operate that reactor safely