This bill is from the 39th Parliament, 2nd session, which ended in September 2008.
Gary Lunn Conservative
This bill has received Royal Assent and is now law.
This is from the published bill.
This enactment permits Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to resume and continue the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River in Ontario for a period of 120 days despite certain conditions of its licence under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-38s:
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
NDP
The Chair NDP Bill Blaikie
Agreed and so ordered.
I think we now have some of the additional witnesses here. We are going to pause while they come in and take their seats at the table.
Would the hon. member for Etobicoke--Lakeshore like to continue his questioning at this time? Or we could proceed to give someone from AECL an opportunity to make a statement before that.
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
Liberal
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
NDP
The Chair NDP Bill Blaikie
We will do it that way. Resuming the 20 minute round, then, for the official opposition, the hon. member for Etobicoke--Lakeshore.
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
Liberal
Michael Ignatieff Liberal Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Chair, if I understand the answer to the previous question about the safety case, AECL is close to providing a safety case. Could the witness please tell the House how long it would take, upon receipt of a safety case, to assess and certify this reactor as safe?
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
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. It is the tribunal that will give this licence amendment, but we are ready to move quickly on that, and we are prepared to issue a decision one way or another from the chair without reasons for a decision.
Mr. Howden, do you have an estimate of the time?
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
Director General, Directorate of Nuclear Cycle and Facilities Regulation
Mr. Chair, the amount of time it is going to take to review the safety case depends on the quality of the information submitted. However, our understanding is that there is a good understanding between AECL and ourselves, so that when the information comes in, we expect it would take only a couple of days to look at it. But again, it is dependent on the quality of the information. That is why we have been working closely with AECL to make it clear what the needed information is such that they can deliver it.
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
Liberal
Michael Ignatieff Liberal Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Chair, can I just get a sense of the safety risk that we are talking about? How serious is a one pump situation? What is the nature of the risk of which the public should be aware, the risk that the witness is assessing in that safety case? What kind of risks are we talking about?
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
Director General, Directorate of Nuclear Cycle and Facilities Regulation
Mr. Chair, right now the proof's licensing basis is with two pumps connected. The situation right now is no pumps connected. However, AECL is in the process of connecting one pump.
As for the safety case that we are reviewing, our expectation is that with this connection the likelihood of an accident having a negative impact on the reactor would be reduced by about 100 times, just to give a sense of what it would be. With the two pumps connected, our expectation, and these are just relative numbers, is that the improvement in safety from the reduction of likelihood would be 1,000 times better, so this is what we are looking at.
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
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 RiverGovernment Orders
Liberal
Michael Ignatieff Liberal Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Chair, I would ask Madam Commissioner if she has had an opportunity to review Bill C-38, the legislation tabled before the House today.
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
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 RiverGovernment Orders
Liberal
Michael Ignatieff Liberal Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Chair, in this legislation I would like her reaction specifically on subclause (1)2, which states:
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited may resume and continue the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River only if it is satisfied that it is safe to do so.
Does she have any comment to make on the drafting of that clause?
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
December 11th, 2007 / 8:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
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. This provides significant risk not only to the reactor, but to the employees and the communities that live around this reactor. There would not be the benefit of the oversight of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
I would like to add that I am the chair of the Convention on Nuclear Safety and we in Canada are acclaimed for the quality of the nuclear regulation that we have, so this would be without precedent in Canada.
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
December 11th, 2007 / 8:05 p.m.
Liberal
Michael Ignatieff Liberal Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Chair, the witness used the phrase “significant risk” in the previous answer. Could the witness be more precise and tell us what is meant exactly? The witness spoke of risk to the Chalk River community and risk in a wider sense. What precisely did the witness mean and how would the witness assess the seriousness of the risk that was described?
An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk RiverGovernment Orders
December 11th, 2007 / 8:05 p.m.
Director General, Directorate of Nuclear Cycle and Facilities Regulation
Mr. Chair, as for what we are looking at from risk, we have to remember that it has two components: it has likelihood and it has consequence.
With the situation in November when the reactor was shut down and kept down when the two pumps were not connected, the risk of that was in the event of an external event. There is a number of events, such as earthquakes, floods, fires, tornadoes, et cetera. The reactor would not necessarily have a qualified emergency power system that would then be available to continue to provide electrical power to the main heavy water pumps at the NRU reactor.
The NRU reactor requires the main heavy water pumps to be operating at all times to provide cooling to the reactor. Cooling is essential, the pumps are essential, and an emergency power system is essential. I said that the safety case being proposed by AECL for one pump operation has not been fully completed. That is why we want to see its further justifications to support the safety case to ensure that it is robust, so that the safety that would be claimed is indeed that.
If an accident occurred, the emergency power system was not available and the pumps were not able to function, there would be nuclear fuel failures, which could then lead to releases of radioactive material to the atmosphere, which would then impact people and the environment.