Thanks very much.
My name is Jerry Hopwood. I'm here today in two ways, one is as a long-serving nuclear energy professional and also currently as the president of the University Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering. It's a long title so we call it UNENE for short.
My own career in nuclear power technology started in the U.K. after which I moved to Canada to join Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which was more than 35 years ago. I've been in nuclear power reactor design and development, safety assessments and regulatory affairs, and project development for building CANDU nuclear reactors here and around the world.
Ultimately, I served as vice-president of reactor and product development for AECL. After a stint in a similar role with the successor engineering organization, Candu Energy, after AECL's engineering group was reorganized, I left there at the end of 2015, and I have recently taken on the position of president of UNENE.
To introduce you to UNENE, it's a not-for-profit organization with a membership composed of the main nuclear power technology organizations in Canada, the Canadian nuclear universities, and government organizations, so it is a three-way partnership. UNENE’s goals are to foster the development of professionals in nuclear technology by providing post-graduate continuing education for professionals early in their careers, typically to provide a master's program in nuclear engineering or diploma programs in nuclear engineering; by carrying out university research in a coordinated way to support industry needs while building the capabilities of highly qualified personnel at the doctorate and post-doctorate level; and finally, by doing all this UNENE establishes a thriving network of university experts who can provide credible advice to industry, government, and civil society.
To this end, UNENE organizes the master's of engineering and diploma programs in nuclear engineering, whereby several of the Canadian nuclear universities offer courses that contribute to a UNENE degree. The courses are primarily arranged around weekends and one-week intensive courses so that young professionals can complete this education while they're in the early stages of their careers. UNENE also sponsors and organizes a group of university industrial research chairs in nuclear technology topics. UNENE also assembles and approves a series of co-operative research and development projects at member universities. Those are selected based on value to industry and value to Canada.
UNENE organizes this work by funding from industry. In most cases that funding is matched or supported by funding through NSERC, so the Government of Canada provides co-funding based on industry support because the work is of value to industry and based on government support because the work adds a value to the nation.
I should note that Glenn here is a colleague not only at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology but also as part of the UNENE organization. I'm sure he'll have comments to make as well.
That's the background to myself and why I'm here. UNENE is certainly a stakeholder in nuclear research and development and has an interest and a responsibility to the nuclear industry. We're part of the supply chain, if you like, because we supply professionals and highly qualified personnel. In terms of my comments with regard to the committee's questions I thought I would provide a little bit of background as I see it, then summarize the picture that UNENE sees as it goes about its work, and then maybe make a few comments on any individual questions, if I have time.
First of all, I would say that it's important that nuclear power technology offers a very unique baseload, low or zero, GHG energy source. It's an essential component of a response to climate change and dealing with the reduction in greenhouse gases that we are all looking for.
Following COP21 in Paris last year, the recognition of the reality of taking action against climate change became much more widely accepted, much more widely acted upon. Yesterday I saw that Canada is announcing plans to reduce coal power in the country, which would be part of that response.
Today nuclear power plants already supply about 11% of the world's electricity and about 18% of Canada's electricity. Moreover, nuclear power supplies about one-third of the world's greenhouse-gas-free electricity. Hydro power is the largest component, and of course hydro power is a large component in Canada. Nuclear power, however, is the next-largest source of greenhouse-gas-free electricity.
Nuclear technology is not just about the power industry. It underpins amazing advances that have taken place in the last generation in the health and medical sectors. Canada has been a leader in this, and Canada's isotope production, among other things, is part of the advancement in medical technology that touches everybody. I've also been a recipient of Canada's technetium isotope diagnostic techniques, so I'm very glad that Canada is such a leader. It has affected my life as well. It's not just about power. It's also about medicine. It's also about the environment.
Canada's nuclear industry has a strong history. I'm sure you've heard this very many times. There are decades of research and development, and decades of industrial success in Canada's nuclear industry. Examples include the development of the CANDU reactor and other reactors; advancements in nuclear regulation; underpinning R and D undertaken at Canada's national laboratories and universities, which is an important factor for UNENE; and the supply chains for equipment, engineering, and project management.
As I travel around the world as part of my job, I find that Canada is highly respected around the world, and Canadian industry and Canadian regulation is highly respected around the world. People view Canada as a leader in nuclear technology.
CANDU is the foundation for this. It's the reactor technology we have in Canada. Certainly a lot of UNENE's work is relative to CANDU technology. Yet as we look ahead, we can see that at the same time as there is somewhat of a rebirth of CANDU, as the reactors at Darlington and Bruce become refurbished for another 30 years of life, there is also an interest in going beyond CANDU to other reactor designs in Canada and worldwide.
There's also an interest in using CANDU as a recycling process to take on fuel that has been used in other reactors and use it one more time so as to take more energy out before the fuel is used up. There are ways in which our traditional CANDU industry can expand, and UNENE would see that university R and D is one of the starting points, one of the early steps that can happen in any broadening of our nuclear industry.
With that background, UNENE would see that it has a responsibility. Our industry is here to stay, both in nuclear medicine and in nuclear power.
I'm sure you are aware that the Government of Ontario and Bruce Power have signed an agreement that sets the Bruce nuclear units running until the year 2063. That's certainly beyond my lifetime. It's beyond the working lifetime of the new grads UNENE is training, so UNENE will have to be here for another generation in order to see that the power plants now running in Ontario and elsewhere are able to operate for the future. Nuclear is here to stay, and UNENE has a responsibility in that. That's important to us. We need to be aware of our responsibility.
Nuclear technology provides important benefits to Canadian society. Its greenhouse-gas-free electricity in Ontario provides 60% of Ontario's electricity. It is the main reason why Ontario was able to get off coal some years ago. Ontario has had a very good experience in providing a clean and green electricity supply.
Nuclear technology is also a very good source of exports and potential exports for this country. We've had a very cyclic nuclear industry, but I was involved in preparing the projects in Romania and China, where CANDU reactors are being built and operated very successfully. We see our ability to export our products in that way as a tremendous asset for Canadian technology.
The other thing I would say is that, looking historically, nuclear power is still within an early stage of development. That may seem strange when you consider that Canada has been involved in nuclear technology for all of the years since the Second World War. However, there is still a great deal of development in order to improve it, make it more beneficial, and make it more widely applicable, so I believe we're far from reaching the end of the development stage in nuclear power and in nuclear medicine technology.
As an R and D organization, UNENE sees that as very encouraging. We look to continue the relationship we have with the Government of Canada—which is supporting UNENE, and we appreciate that—and to combine that work with industry so that we have valuable R and D and valuable professional development, both for industry and for Canada.