In general, yes, I can. We have been working a lot with various universities across Canada. The $19 million on an ongoing basis represents a sum of about $7 million that would be needed at McMaster to increase the amount of time the reactor runs there. We run it a certain number of hours per day; if we had about $6 million to $7 million more, we could run it literally 24-7. Simply, the more you run the reactor, the more neutrons you get out of it. We could also upgrade the power; right now, we're running at a relatively low rate.
That would be a relatively easy fix for the problem of Chalk River shutting down in the spring. We can turn it on more, but we need more staff to run it, obviously.
For the other part of the funding—let's say we had $6 million or $7 million for McMaster directly for the extra running of the reactor—the other thing that has gone on is access to international neutron sources around the world, and again, this has been led by McMaster. A little while ago, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the CFI, had international access to international infrastructure. We put forward a CFI grant that generated many millions of dollars and would allow Canadian researchers to visit nuclear sites around the world to do their experiments and use neutrons in specialized facilities around the world.
Unfortunately, that program has now come to an end, so we're talking about this perfect storm. With Chalk River shutting down, there are no neutrons there. We have the only active research reactor in the entire country, and, at the same time, we now have no funds to access neutron sources around the world.
We are very concerned about access to neutrons, particularly in advanced manufacturing materials. These sources are incredibly important in understanding the safety of materials, the development of new materials, and the creation of medical isotopes. They're incredibly important.
Of that $19 million on the ongoing thing, we'd probably need something like maybe $8 million or $9 million for access to international sources. There's also a small amount in the budget—and to be honest, I'm not so sure we need all of that—to organize the access to international sites. We obviously have to contribute to these international sites to get access, but to be honest, I think we may be overestimating the amount we need to organize and strategize that kind of discussion.
However, I would argue that, yes, on an ongoing basis, close to $19 million is probably what we need.