Thank you.
My opening remarks are available in both English and French but with your permission, I will present them in English.
What I'll do is I'll flip this slide deck.
I thought it would be good to talk a bit about how the commission operates and works. If you look at slide 2, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is an independent, quasi-judicial administrative tribunal that regulates all nuclear facilities and activities in Canada, from nuclear plants to waste management.
On slide 3--just to reiterate--our core mission is to regulate to protect health, safety, security, and the environment in our international obligations. How do we do this? By setting up a clear regulatory framework, by conducting rigorous and open public hearing and consultation processes, and by relying on our world-class scientists and engineers.
On slide 4, we have pretty modern legislation that enables us to set up regulatory policy, to license nuclear facilities and nuclear activities, and to ensure compliance. It is governed by commissioners appointed by the Governor in Council, and the commissioners are renowned Canadians and experts in their own field. If you turn to the next slide, I actually put their names there so you can see they bring to the table diverse experience in geology, medicine, engineering, mining, etc.
On slide 6 there is a very quick overview of the public hearing that the commission conducts. That particular public hearing allows all the proponents and all interveners and the public to come in front of the commission and argue the merits of a submission. It's a unique kind of public hearing. It has two days of hearings. In day one, the proponent comes in and makes the application. Our own staff make a public analysis of the application and then it's all on the record, and 60 days later all interveners can come in front of the commission and argue the merits of the case. It's a pretty unique kind of process that maximizes the input of all interveners who are interested in the subject.
On slide 7--just to brag a bit about our own staff--there's amazing expertise in the commission, ranging from nuclear engineering and physics, environmental protection, radiology protection, waste management. They basically analyze any submission appearing in front of the commission and propose action, recommend what to do, ensure that the commission's decisions are implemented, and do a pre-audit audit and compliance analysis.
On slide 8--just to try to explain--the nuclear business is a very complicated business. We've set up some pretty extensive criteria for safety and for health. This is just an attempt to tell you the kinds of issues we are dealing with in every application that comes in front of us for a nuclear facility, from operating performance, performance assurance, equipment fitness, analysis, radiation protection, emergency preparedness, site security, etc.
On slide 9--just to state the obvious--the MAPLE project was subject to the same safety criteria as any other nuclear submission that came in front of us. We have exercised diligent regulatory oversight and allowed for AECL to do all the testing they had to do to try to understand the operation of the MAPLE project. It was the decision of AECL to discontinue the MAPLE project, and they'll have to come in front of us for an application for safely decommissioning the MAPLE reactors.
It's similar for the NRU. The NRU was also subject to the same safety criteria that I showed you before. We have conducted compliance and verification inspection, and I'm happy to report that the NRU right now is operating safely.
There is some question about whether the NRU licence will be extended beyond October 2011. The NRU is operating safely now. There is no reason to believe it will not continue to operate safely. The question is, for how long? That will be determined only when AECL appears in front of the commission with a submission that proposes the life extension, with all the things they have to do to make sure the plant is operating safely.
In conclusion, the CNSC regulates operations, but it is not running those operations. Regulators regulate, operators operate. Our role is to make sure, first, that we are protecting the health, safety, and security of Canadians and the environment, and second, that we are implementing Canada's international obligations efficiently.
Thank you.