Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 19th, 2009

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

That's right, Mr. Chair, I don't want to shortchange. That's why I wanted to do it now, while we're waiting. I see they're going to probably be a couple of minutes more.

I do want to get it on the record that this is a concern. We ought to write to the department. If a department is asked to come before a committee, can't they send anybody? It's a little hard to believe. It's a big department, first of all, but is this not important enough? We've heard the nature of the situation—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

Mr. Regan, rather than speculating on it, as I've said, the chair may have had some discussions and there may be a reason that was brought forward. I don't think we should be the judge of whether the reason is acceptable or not.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I'm just saying we should ask.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

I think we'll just leave that for the moment. Let's break for two minutes and I'll have a chance to talk to the clerk.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

In the interest of time, I wonder if we could reconvene with the next panel.

I'd like to welcome Mr. William Pilkington, senior vice-president and chief nuclear officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, and Mr. Richard Côté, vice-president, isotopes business, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. You're in the right place. Thank you for being here.

I think you had an opportunity to see the process we use. We have about ten minutes for any comments you would like to make, and then we go through the questioning period, with roughly seven minutes in the first round and five minutes in the second round. I think both of you have been before the committee, so you know the routine.

Mr. Pilkington, would you like to lead off?

[William Pilkington, Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have with me today Mr. Richard Côté, vice-president responsible for AECL's isotope business.

Hugh MacDiarmid, AECL's president and CEO, asked me to express his regret at not being able to be here. Hugh is attending his daughter's wedding in Alberta and hopes you will understand his absence.

I would like to give you an update on progress in the repair of the National Research Universal reactor at the Chalk River facility. As you are aware, we continue to conduct ourselves with the greatest possible transparency. We continue to provide proactive disclosure of our progress on a weekly basis. Last Wednesday, we issued our 25th NRU status report, providing full public disclosure on the status of the repair.

In addition, we continue to use our outage website, nrucanada.ca, which provides a wide range of information on the NRU and the repair. To date, we have posted eight videos on the site addressing different aspects of the repair. I recommend the site and the videos to you.

In our outage status updates, we provide guidance on the duration of the shutdown. This guidance continues to be founded on the best evidence available, including the most up-to-date analysis of the inspection data, progress on repair strategies, and critical path requirements for restart after an extended shutdown. At this time, I can assure you that we remain on track to return the reactor to service during the first calendar quarter of 2010.

Our continued progress is due in large part to the talented and dedicated employees at the Chalk River facility and their AECL colleagues in Mississauga. Work on the reactor has continued seven days a week and around the clock since the outage started in May. I also want to recognize the commitment of our vendor partners, like Promation in Mississauga, Ontario, and Liburdi Engineering in Dundas, Ontario. They have worked tirelessly, along with AECL's tooling design and manufacturing groups, to support our efforts in the development and manufacture of numerous first-of-a-kind toolings required during this outage.

To date, well over 20 unique new tools have been created for inspection, cleaning, and repair purposes. The collaboration with these vendors and the integration of AECL's expertise with Canadian and global companies that have other capability in the nuclear field are both impressive and very important to the progress made to date.

For example, as part of tooling development activities, our partners have worked side by side with AECL subject matter experts. AECL staff have relocated to vendor facilities, where they are able to test and qualify equipment and to train using NRU mock-ups located at the vendor premises. Work carried out by Promation and Liburdi facilities is transferred seamlessly to Chalk River for final testing and training using the full-scale NRU mock-up located at Chalk River.

At an earlier session I advised the committee on the three phases of our return to service plan. At this time, I would like to provide an update on our progress in the context of each of those three phases.

The first phase involved the conduct of a condition assessment of the reactor and the selection of a repair technique. That phase was completed at the end of August.

With respect to the repair, we have decided to proceed with a weld buildup technique over six specific locations. Phase two is the implementation of the repair strategy.

As discussed before, the challenge in conducting these repairs is the fact that access to the repair is provided through a 12-centimetre aperture that is a distance of some nine metres away and in a radioactive environment. As I have already mentioned, extensive testing of the repair process and special tools is now under way.

I can also report that as part of the repair process, qualification of the welding process for the newly manufactured repair tools by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, or TSSA, is nearing completion. Two welding tests completed last week have met TSSA requirements. Further, welding tool qualification and additional welding tests are currently in progress at the vendors' facilities.

In parallel to the current weld qualification activities, preparation of the weld sites is under way. Initial remote cleaning is currently in progress, removing the normal wall-surface buildup that occurs during operation of the reactor. Additional surface preparation is under development. These activities are necessary to prepare the sites for welding. Once the repair is complete and the final inspection confirms results, the third phase of the program will be returning the reactor to service, with the full oversight of the CNSC, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. These three phases interlock and overlap to some degree. This approach ensures that we will return the reactor to service as soon as we possibly and safely can during the first quarter of calendar 2010.

I want to mention that my colleague, Richard Côté, is in regular contact with the other isotope producers around the world. Together, producers are making every possible effort to schedule production and planned maintenance outages so that isotope production is maximized and interruptions in supply are minimized.

Before concluding, I want to reiterate our confidence that the NRU will be repaired and that the repair program is the best available option for continued supply of medical isotopes to patients.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

Thank you, Mr. Pilkington.

We'll go to Mr. Regan, for his seven minutes.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming today. Nice to see you again, Mr. Pilkington.

I have a chart that I gather was given by AECL to CNSC. I think it was in June that you sent it to CNSC and indicated a timeline. Is that right, or was it later than that?

I can show it to you and maybe you'll recognize it.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

Excuse me, Mr. Pilkington, the chair has a point of order from Mr. Anderson.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Chair, I'm just wondering if Mr. Regan has copies for the others.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

I think we'll just wait for a second; then we'll all have the advantage of having this chart.

Mr. Pilkington, it will give you a chance to digest it somewhat.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I trust, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. Pilkington's familiar with the chart.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Alan Tonks]

We'll stop the time for a second.

Mr. Regan.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Pilkington, when was this presented to CNSC?

[William Pilkington]

We made presentations to the CNSC in June and in August. I believe this was presented in August.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Okay, thank you. That's important, because of course when you reported to the committee in June we certainly weren't hearing anything about this not being completed until March, which this diagram suggests. I would certainly be concerned if this had been presented to CNSC in June, when we were still hearing about it being three months, possibly longer, but nothing like this. So that's good to hear, if that's the case.

The chart indicates that by October you should have final confirmation of the extent of repair, have the corrosion mechanism determined, and begin full-scale mock-up testing of the repair tool and by the end of the month initiate repair of the vessel. Is that what you're doing?

[William Pilkington]

That is what we're doing; however, we have not achieved all of those goals at this time.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

You did go through some of the things you're doing, and I'm trying to fit them into these various categories and understand it. For a layperson that may be difficult. I'm sure you'll understand that.

So in terms of these three, which ones have you or have you not achieved? Are you in a position to initiate repair of the vessel next week? Because by the end of the month, that's where that deadline is.

[William Pilkington]

That's correct. We have completed the fabrication of the repair tooling. We have confirmed the extent of repair below the weld. We are currently not finished with the corrosion mechanism determination and the final confirmation of the extent of repair. We are about to start full-scale mock-up testing of the repair tool, and I would project that the initiated repair of the vessel will be somewhat later than on this schedule.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Okay. Thank you.

I was talking to some nuclear engineers, and I understand that in the late 1980s the government had the MAPLE-X10 reactor, a reactor project that, as I understand it, was then cancelled by the previous Conservative government at the time. Part of the work being done with that process resulted in the development of radiochemical knowledge that was eventually sold to create MDS Nordion.

Is that accurate in terms of the MAPLE-X10? What happened with the MAPLE-X10?

[William Pilkington]

I'm afraid I do not have the AECL history on the development of the various stages of the MAPLEs.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

That was before your time.

[William Pilkington]

I'm afraid that it was before my time, yes.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Okay.

Are you aware of whether the Australian reactor is exporting any isotopes at this time? This is when it would be nice to have NRCan here, the department, because it's really a question I'd like to ask them. But since they're not, I'm asking someone who works in the industry at AECL.

[William Pilkington]

My job, as chief nuclear officer for AECL, is the operation of the Chalk River site and research and technology operations, in fact, which is somewhat broader. But my focus is on the repair and return to service of the NRU. I personally am not keeping abreast of broader developments in the industry.