Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There is a lot of concern now with respect to Iran in the whole matter of a breakthrough, because of the highly enriched uranium threshold, which facilitates the breakthrough capacity for a nuclear weaponization program.
That brings me to the question of Canada. To what extent are we being a good international citizen in that regard? I noted that in 2010 the Canadian government's decision to permit Ottawa-based Nordion to sign a 10-year deal with Russia to import highly enriched uranium for use in our medical isotopes production process was criticized by a coalition of arms control advocates. Similarly, we don't appear to be involved in moving ourselves from high enriched uranium to low enriched uranium approaches.
I have two specific questions.
We now have two nuclear research reactors, one at McMaster University in Hamilton, and the other at École Polytechnique in Montreal that rely on highly enriched uranium as their base fuel. Where do we stand at this point with regard to the conversion of these two nuclear research reactors to a low enriched, an LEU, alternative?
Can you explain why Canada has chosen not to participate in the joint effort among France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States, to convert their medical isotopes production facilities to use low enriched uranium rather than highly enriched uranium?