Evidence of meeting #33 for Natural Resources in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was repair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to go back to the money question just for a minute. I'm just getting a sense that the overall budget for Chalk River is about $120 million this year, just to sort of run the place. Is that right,?
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
So you're—
5:30 p.m.
NDP
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
You're in the general ball park, yes.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Okay.
How much money has been allocated to you by the government for this repair for this year?
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
I believe the money has not yet been allocated for this. We'll be going through the normal processes.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Okay.
This $70 million to repair Chalk River, is that what you estimate it will cost to get us to March of next year, approximately, February or March?
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Back in service at high power in the first quarter, yes.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
In the first quarter.
So from June when the thing shut down to the first quarter of 2010, $70 million will be needed. That's your current, today, estimate to fix this.
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
It shut down in mid-May. That is the cost incremental to the normal cost of the operations of the site that will be required to repair the NRU.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
So the $70 million is not meant to come out of the $120 million or anything like that.
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
No, it's in addition.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
That's correct.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
It does. There's a loss of revenue and then there's a savings of not producing, and it nets.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Has the government come up with the cost of what the increase to the medical community has been because they've had to go out and purchase more, different, and more expensive isotopes? Are you aware of that figure?
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
That's beyond my knowledge.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
So one of the things this committee will struggle with is trying to actually grasp what the total cost of the shutdown has been. There's the cost to repair it, the lost revenue, and the cost to taxpayers to go out and buy other isotopes.
It's back to Mr. Regan's point about having the health department here. It would be helpful, because they're the ones who may be picking up the tab for that. Well, the Canadian taxpayers are.
I'm a bit confused at the context of this. I appreciate your diligence in going forward. You're doing what you're meant to do, which is to get this thing back on line.
At the shutdown in May, the Prime Minister came out within weeks of that shutdown and said Canada should get out of the isotope business. Meanwhile, we're going to pour $70 million into a 50-year-old reactor to stay in the isotope business, all within the context of the federal government trying to sell off the whole thing, I assume. Has there been anything formal from the government to you folks saying we're getting out of the isotope business? Has there ever been a memo or discussion or something in black and white that says—for you to consider as you're doing your work diligently, day by day—by the way, we're also getting out of this business entirely?
5:30 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
To my knowledge, there has been no specific direction along those lines.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Okay.
I then take the Prime Minister's comments to be something.... I don't know how to take them, to be honest with you. This is the confusion I'm having, as we heard from the folks who deal on the international scene, about where isotopes come from. You folks are diligently trying to get this thing back on line to last at least until.... What does the window look like? So from 2010, you're expecting this repair to take us.... How long does a normal repair like this last you in terms of a reactor? How good are you to go?
I know this is a little more complicated than an old Honda. When folks take their car into the shop, they go to the mechanic and they say, “Goodness, my engine is not working”. The mechanic says, “This should do you for at least a couple more years before you're under any concern again”. Reactors are so much more complicated, but is it a 10-year fix, a 20-year fix, a 50-year fix?
5:35 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
You're right, nuclear reactors and cars are not the same thing.
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I read that somewhere. One's a little more expensive than the other.
5:35 p.m.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Nuclear Officer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
The approach we're taking on the repair of the NRU reactor vessel is to target a repair that will allow operation beyond 2016.
The actual life of the NRU is not determined. There's no specific date. It will be decided by the ongoing inspection programs that we have and the ongoing fitness for service assessments that we do as we go forward.
5:35 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
To get back to, I suppose, where this problem all started, with these corrosive points that were found and the leaks that were going on, do we know what caused those leaks?