Last November 19, after a routine periodic maintenance operation, when Atomic Energy Canada reported to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, discrepancies were noted between the licence conditions and the physical state of the facility. On November 22, AECL voluntarily shut down the reactor for a prolonged period. This was not in response to an order or a request from the president of the commission, but AECL informed her that it wanted to shut down the reactor for an extended period.
My question, Minister, will seem quite simple. If it was complying with the conditions of its licence and realized in its discussions with the commission that there was an issue, why did the AECL decide to extend the shutdown since according to that body, it was respecting the conditions of its licence? At that time, it had the possibility and the authority to restart its reactor without the permission of the commission. Why did it decide to prolong the shutdown of its reactor?