The key thing is that the nuclear demand for deuterium oxide, or heavy water, is growing substantially in countries like India. They're starting up four CANDU-equivalent reactors in 2015 and 2016. They have 10 to 12 more that are being started up in the next eight years. This is really going to put a shock on the world supply of deuterium oxide.
It's a market where we have a few inventories here in Canada and very little production elsewhere in the world. We believe that what's there will get sucked up by these nuclear uses and these non-nuclear applications will not have supply, and that will hinder their growth plans.
In our dialogue with these pharmaceutical companies, for example, deuterated pharmaceuticals take longer to metabolize in the body. You can have a lower dose with fewer side effects that lasts a longer time in your body. These companies are saying, “Andrew, I don't need a lot today, but in five years I will need a great deal. How are we going to get that?” That's sort of the same timeline as a complete crash in world supply.
That's where our collaboration with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and our strategy to develop private sector production—never done before anywhere on earth—is scalable to meet these diverse, new non-nuclear uses of deuterium oxide. It is really quite exciting and why we cherish that relationship, and hope to do a lot in the Ottawa Valley.