Thank you very much for the question.
First, I would like to clarify that the CANDU Owners Group does not engage in marketing activities. The responsibility, actually, or the lead for marketing CANDU technology is with SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin has the rights to do that. They are in the best position to talk about exactly what they are doing, but I would be happy to share with you some of the information that has been publicly made available.
They're in active discussions right now with China for developing the advanced fuel CANDU reactor. China's vision for nuclear technology is that it would like to recycle the fuel from its light-water reactors, the pressurized water reactors that it's operating in its country. The CANDU reactor provides a viable technology for taking spent fuel from the light-water reactors and re-burning it in a CANDU-type reactor. Their vision, as I understand it, is for every four light-water reactors to build one advanced fuel CANDU reactor to accept the fuel. That provides certainly an exciting opportunity, because it provides a market for about 25 advanced fuel CANDU reactors just in China. Again, SNC-Lavalin is in a much better position to speak on this. I'm reflecting information that I read about in the public domain.
In regard to the second part of your question, on what is government's role in sustaining it, government has a key role in sustaining the infrastructure that enables nuclear to exist, to continue to improve with time. I just came back, for example, from a trip to India last week. I met with the leaders of the Department of Atomic Energy, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. There they have sustained a vision around nuclear development that transcends changes in government, that is long-range, and has many aspects to it. Underlying it is a very strong research base.
We need to have a strong R and D platform. The importance of having a research reactor just was mentioned at the previous session. Today, COG is doing work in the NRU reactor. We are making the most of the time that we have available to us before that reactor shuts down.
What will we do when that reactor shuts down? We will still need to do some research. We will likely need to do some research in the coming years. What we are doing right now at COG is looking for alternative places to do that research if we cannot do it here in Canada. What that means is wherever we do that research, that facility will build the knowledge and capability and Canada will not, which means that in terms of sustainability we are driving towards a dead end if we don't build the fundamental R and D capabilities.
At COG we will find alternatives to support our members. We will have to look outside the country if we cannot find it in this country. But it will be a loss for Canada to go to other countries to do this fundamental research that we need to sustain the technology.