Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today.
First of all, let me provide the committee with an update on our most urgent priority at AECL, namely the repair and return to service of the NRU reactor at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories.
Intense repair operations continue around the clock. They involve over 300 highly qualified AECL staff and industry partners. As of today we are working to repair the last of ten sites that required repair on the reactor vessel. The process has been painstaking. Our rate of progress has been dictated by the need to inspect, analyze, and understand irradiated metal behaviour and to measure and evaluate stress on the vessel structure. What we are doing, simply put, has never been done before in the history of the nuclear industry. It is probably the most complex and sophisticated welding operation ever undertaken in a radioactive environment.
As we stated last March, the NRU will resume isotope production by the end of July 2010. That schedule does include prudent contingency to reflect the difficulty inherent in these final repair sequences. AECL is making every effort to return the NRU to service as quickly and as safely as possible. At AECL we do understand the importance of critical projects that we must execute successfully. We understand the need to control our costs and the imperative that we prepare for the upcoming restructuring of the company, which is a process being managed by the federal shareholder.
In terms of our first-of-a-kind CANDU reactor refurbishments in New Brunswick and Ontario, we have experienced cost overruns and scheduled delays due to the highly complex nature of deconstructing and rebuilding reactors that were built in the 1970s. However, we have instituted corrective measures to improve project management and financial reporting systems in order to enhance performance.
As for AECL's ongoing market development, there is strong interest in many countries in CANDU technology, both in our proven 700-megawatt reactors and our larger 1,200-megawatt advanced CANDU reactor. In terms of supporting and preparing for the restructuring process being led by the federal government, we have divided AECL into two internal divisions. One is the commercial part of AECL, the CANDU reactor division, which is the part of the AECL being divested by the federal shareholder. The other division is the research and technology division, which comprises Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario and Whiteshell Laboratories in Manitoba. As has been stated, the nuclear laboratories will continue to be owned by the federal government.
To conclude, Mr. Chairman, there is a bright future for the nuclear power industry in Canada and an important role for nuclear laboratories to support world-class Canadian nuclear technology.
Thank you.