Thank you.
I would like to go back to the theme of Canada as a clean energy superpower. Certainly the people in Saskatchewan, where the uranium mines are, and the AECL workers were very pleased to see that Canada is going to be a player in the global renaissance of nuclear energy as part of the overall mix of energy.
We know that CANDU technology, for example, is among the cleanest in the world. In addition to nuclear energy, we have the expertise to test new fuels. In fact, Canada has played a leading role in nuclear non-proliferation by taking the warheads from Russia, for example, in the MOX fuel form and being able to test its use as fuel for energy, thereby making the warheads more valuable as a source of power than as a threat to human life.
In addition to the fuel research, we also have a situation with the spent fuel. Because our fuel is so clean, I want to distinguish between spent fuel and waste. In the case of spent fuel, we use only a fraction of the energy that's contained in a fuel rod. We are storing it in such a way that should uranium become very expensive, we can retrieve these rods. The overarching concern that Canadians have is the waste from nuclear fuel and the overall waste from the nuclear industry. There is waste from medical isotopes and waste from the old parts on refurbishments.
I'm very pleased to see some emphasis in the budget on the issue of nuclear waste. Would you describe how the budget and the estimates are addressing the issue of waste and how the money is being allocated?