Thank goodness it wasn't exciting. It was very boring, but that's the way I like to travel.
First of all, my organization, the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries, represents the Canadian nuclear supply chain. We just surpassed 200 members a few weeks ago. Most of our members are SMEs. That's an important sector in our industry. They are located largely in Ontario, but we have some members in Quebec and in the west. Our members employ more than 12,000 people dedicated to the nuclear industry that our colleagues have described so well.
I thought I would address some of the nine questions that were sent to me last week without repeating some of the remarks that have been stated earlier today.
First of all, one of the first questions was about what challenges are facing our industry. I think the biggest challenge we face right now is to demonstrate superior project performance. One of the critiques of our industry over the number of years is that we haven't been able to deliver projects in a timely and cost-effective manner. We are now undertaking a major refurbishment project starting at Darlington and then following at Bruce. The Darlington project kicked off its outage on October 14, and it will be back into service on February 20. The oversight of that project by international experts has stated that it's the best planned project they have ever seen, so this is our opportunity to demonstrate we can perform, meet the budget, and meet the schedule in a safe and environmentally sound way.
The other challenge we face, and it has been touched on by others, is that there's generally a profound lack of understanding in the public about our industry. We have to, and will continue to, as well as we can, communicate that understanding, because I think with understanding comes trust. You find in communities around our nuclear sites in Bruce, Darlington, and Pickering, where there's a high level of engagement with local people, that there's a high level of acceptance and understanding of the technology.
On the international front, the big challenge we face is that we're competing with major international marketing organizations and vendor organizations that have strong resources and strong government backing. In order for us to succeed in this difficult international market, we need the support of government and we need export financing credits to help our suppliers.
I think those are the three major challenges we face. The opportunities have been touched by others. I think the huge one is, of course, the recognition everywhere other than in the White House that climate change is real and serious, and that there are plans under way around the world to combat it. As others have said, nuclear has a key role in that battle against carbon, which is a phrase I really like.
You have asked about the state of CANDU technology. It has performed very well in Canada, Argentina, South Korea, Romania, and China. The confidence in that technology was demonstrated by the Ontario government earlier this year when they committed $25 billion to refurbish 10 CANDU units at Bruce and Darlington to continue to provide clean energy to the province of Ontario.
Argentina and Romania are about to commit to further CANDU projects, and as you will hear from the SNC people, the advanced fuel CANDU reactor in China, with the potential to recycle uranium, is a very positive undertaking and it is looking very promising.
My organization over the last three years has led or received trade missions from eight countries. We visited or hosted delegations from Argentina, the U.K., India, China, Romania, South Korea, Poland, and the U.S.A. We are very active in those markets supporting not only CANDU technology but supporting the companies across Canada that are able to supply not only into CANDU reactors but into other reactors worldwide.
You asked about the future of nuclear R and D and innovation. We're very enthusiastic about the new structure of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. I think the GOCO model, as Richard stated, has worked well in other countries. We think it will bring a more commercially focused R and D program, and researchers and decision-makers will need to see a line of sight from their innovation to the realization of products that benefit the people and the industry.
We're also pleased that there's been strong engagement between the laboratory and members' supply-chain companies across Canada, which are the organizations that can take the innovations that emerge and are incubated at Chalk River into real important applications to support our industry.
I'm now going to touch on the medical innovation in R and D. We were the first country to develop the cobalt-60 cancer therapy machine. That was demonstrated in Saskatchewan in 1952. This is an example where need drives innovation. With the potential closing of NRU, our colleagues at Nordion and Bruce Power are working together to develop another way to produce the kind of high specific activity cobalt previously produced at NRU. It's a way that has emerged out of necessity.
Another issue you raised was how the shutdown of NRU will impact R and D in the nuclear sector. Of course, it's disappointing to see an asset of that importance no longer being maintained, but it's causing our organizations to look for international R and D collaboration with other facilities around the world, facilities that can do some of the things NRU does to ensure that we continue to support our industry with constructive and valuable R and D.
I think Canada's nuclear waste management plan has been a very robust and internationally recognized one. I'm dating myself, because I can remember when the Canadian nuclear fuel waste management program was announced in 1978. That started research of over $1 billion on looking for solutions in deep underground facilities in granite rock. AECL built the underground research laboratory in my home province of Manitoba, which was a world-leading facility, attracting scientists from around the world, who came and did research at that facility. It's now decommissioned, but I think it established Canada as a world-leading organization in the field of R and D in high-level waste.
We've talked about the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and their very strong program of community engagement. They've travelled across the country, have identified now nine communities that are still interested in hosting a high-level waste facility. These communities have the right geology to support the facility, and they continue to show interest in that. I think we're also demonstrating world leadership in how we plan to manage our high-level waste.
Finally, you asked about the opportunities and the state of decommissioning. Canada actually has much more experience in nuclear decommissioning than we give ourselves credit for. Indeed, whenever we replace reactor cores—and we've done that at Pickering, Point Lepreau, and more recently at Bruce—we're actually doing a partial dismantling. We are surgically removing the internals of a reactor core and then replacing it with new components, so we have experience in that type of surgical decommissioning, which will stand us well when we look at the worldwide decommissioning market.
Sadly, it's not something that we like to see, but there are more than 20 reactors that are slated for decommissioning in the U.K. and the U.S.A., as well as domestically here in Chalk River, Pickering, and Gentilly-2. I think our industry, especially those companies with robotic capability, are very well positioned to capitalize on that opportunity.
In summary—and I'll just echo what others have said—Canada is indeed a tier-one nuclear nation. Our history goes back a long way. Chalk River really is an iconic location for the nuclear industry, of which we should be very proud, and are very proud. As a small nation, we have typically played in a much higher weight class in the nuclear industry. We will continue to do so. We hope that this committee will, in its findings, support the conclusions we hope we have brought to you today.
Thank you.