Evidence of meeting #36 for Natural Resources in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aecl.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
But I think I've done my reading properly, and I noted that the ACR-1000 design did not provide for using enriched uranium. That means AECL had to change its plans a bit.
Am I right or wrong?
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
The ACR-1000 today is designed around the use of slightly enriched uranium. So it is a higher uranium content than the natural uranium we use for the CANDU 6. We say it is “slightly enriched” because it is less enriched than the low-enriched fuel that's used in the light water reactors, which is in the range of 4% to 5%. The ACR is, I believe, just over 2%, versus 0.9% in the natural uranium.
12:25 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
So we can say that the ACR-1000 did have a design problem, and to solve the problem—in fact, to solve the positive reactivity problem—a compromise was needed and the use of enriched uranium had to be envisaged.
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
I would not characterize it as a design flaw; I would characterize it as a design attribute. The decisions were made balancing many different factors—again, predating my arrival, so I'm only repeating what I'm told. But the decisions have been made to optimize the various factors in the design of the ACR-1000 in a way that achieves our objectives in performance, productivity, cost, and all the other factors that are important to our customers and are important to being competitive in the international marketplace.
Product development in any industry is iterative and involves examination of technical risk and the review of different alternatives. So as the concept and the definition of the next generation of CANDU reactor beyond the CANDU 6 took shape, inevitably changes were made. Design decisions were made, but not to correct flaws; in fact, to optimize the product and to make it as competitive as can be in the market.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Madame DeBellefeuille.
Now we go to Ms. Bell for seven minutes. Go ahead, please.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Catherine Bell NDP Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. MacDiarmid, for appearing before us today.
I asked the minister a question regarding isotope supply in the event of, God forbid, any disaster at Chalk River, which is going to be the largest supplier of isotopes in Canada and to the world. What I asked him was what processes were in place in the event of an emergency or a prolonged shutdown, because the licence runs out in 2011. I know you're trying to get it extended, but if that's not the case, I asked him what kinds of processes would be there.
The minister said he has confidence that everything will be fine, but I didn't really get the sense that a process was in place. Because we don't want to end up in a situation...and we are talking about isotope supply because of the MAPLEs, I just want to know what processes are in place and what discussions on the world stage you have had that will ensure a supply.
June 5th, 2008 / 12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
I am certainly happy to talk about that, because it is important.
The first thing is that we have implemented a communications protocol that is clearly understood at all levels within our organization and various aspects of the supply chain, such that in the event that there is even the risk of a shortage of delivery, all of the appropriate communications take place and the ability to start to plan alternative sources kicks in. You know well that these isotopes have a short half-life, so there's not a lot of time.
We also understand that our colleagues at Health Canada are actively examining ways to improve the communications and coordination across the supply chain and the reach into the medical community so that there's a coordinated response in the event of an unplanned outage.
Certainly our goal, as you can imagine, is that we not have any outage caused by the same factors that occurred last November and December. Equally, in relation to the technical performance of the reactor today, we have every evidence to suggest that it's been operating at the highest levels of reliability and continues to do that.
As we move closer to the end of the current licensing period, there will likely be some periods when we will need to shut the reactor down for a longer period of time than is currently the case. It will be measured in weeks rather than days. Our view today is that with proper planning and coordination, we will be able to successfully coordinate and manage a reactor outage of, say, three weeks' duration, such that we will be able to undertake any work that needs to be done. It is certainly in our planning frame to be able to deal with that kind of eventuality in a planned way.
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Catherine Bell NDP Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you.
Another question I have is on the generation III technology that the minister talked a little bit about. He mentioned that these reactors are not without their challenges. Could you outline the challenges he was referring to, if you know? I didn't get to ask him the question.
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
That actually puts me in a bit of an awkward position, because the guidelines imposed by the Ontario bidding process preclude me from making any comments with respect to competitive reactor-makers in a public forum, so I'd prefer, if I may, to defer and not respond directly to that, if it's appropriate.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Catherine Bell NDP Vancouver Island North, BC
I had one more question. Where did it go? Oh, there it is.
The special examination of the Auditor General that you mentioned in your presentation highlighted three deficiencies in the company that needed to be addressed. You talked about one. What were the other two?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
The other two were the requirement to fund the ongoing development of the ACR-1000, which we've just been talking about, and the requirement to begin to invest in the renewal of the infrastructure at our Chalk River laboratories. Those were identified in the course of the special examination as being the three major issues that stood in the way of AECL's fulfilling its mandate.
To be perfectly honest, we at AECL welcomed that report, because it shone a spotlight on the issues that we felt needed to be addressed, and addressed by providing adequate funding to our organization. We draw a direct linkage between that report and the ultimate decision to provide us with the funding support for this year that has allowed us to work directly on those three issues.
We are, indeed, funding the development of the ACR-1000 at a level that allows us to respond to the marketplace time windows. We are also moving ahead expeditiously to begin the Project New Lease program, which is the infrastructure renewal at Chalk River. And the third was the DIF.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Catherine Bell NDP Vancouver Island North, BC
Can you tell me, then, when that special examination was started? Was it started under the current government or the previous government?
12:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
I can't necessarily respond. The work was done and the report was issued in the early fall timeframe of 2007. So the work was done in the spring and fall of 2007, I would assume. That's not firsthand knowledge.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Ms. Bell.
We go now to the government side and to Ms. Gallant, for up to seven minutes.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chalk River site of AECL is in my riding, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, and it's a significant employer. Employment has increased significantly over the last two years since this government has taken office. It has given cash injections, the highest cash injections in more than 30 years. So we've seen a growth in employment.
We've had many talented individuals working on the MAPLE project. What impact on the overall employment at AECL is the termination of the MAPLE project going to have? Are we still going to see a net increase in employment?
12:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Yes. We expect we will be employing more people at both Chalk River and Sheridan Park in the future.
I just mentioned Project New Lease, a project at Chalk River. It is a significant multi-year project that will require very sophisticated engineering and scientific expertise to pull off. From my perspective, the ability to redeploy the staff from the DIF project onto Project New Lease is very welcome. We have demands and we have open positions as we speak. We do not expect any employment effects at all.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
We've heard from various members of this committee concerns over contingency plans with the NRU. What has been the operational performance of the NRU reactor over the last few years? Are you confident of its operating safely?
I'd also like to understand AECL's commitment to cooperating with the stakeholders throughout Canada, including the National Research Council, in making plans for the future. The Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering represents the academic community across Canada that needs access to neutron beams for research and education.
What is the direction and thinking of AECL to supersede the three missions of the NRU reactor for the next 50 years—the three missions being materials research with neutron beams, support for Canada's nuclear power technology, and Canada's world-leading business in isotope production for nuclear medicine?
12:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
I must admit, I lost track a little bit of what you wanted me to comment on.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
First of all, I'd like to know what the operational performance of the NRU has been over the last few years.
12:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
We have achieved a 95%-plus reliability track record in terms of delivery of isotopes. We have invested substantial funds in maintaining and upgrading the reactor to be able to maintain that high level of performance.
As a newcomer to the company, I find it quite impressive that our operations team has been able to achieve that level of operating performance from what initially was a research reactor design.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
You mentioned that we were going to go through some infrastructure extensions at NRU. At the same time that there are going to be NRU extensions, are you considering at all an eventual replacement for the NRU?
12:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
The exploration of a successor research reactor is something that extends well beyond the walls of AECL. It's something that has certainly been discussed very thoroughly in research, academic, and scientific circles, and there's a strong desire that there be an ongoing research reactor.
From our perspective of supporting our core mission, the power reactor business, we believe a long-term multipurpose research reactor is a very important component of providing the research and scientific platform for our ongoing fleet of reactors, supporting not just AECL but the Canadian nuclear industry. There are many compelling reasons that a future reactor should be built.
At the same time, it is not without cost, and at this point, I'm just engaging in the general discussion of saying, let's see what the business case is and what the longer-term future should be.