That's a very good question. Thanks for letting me have the opportunity to answer it.
I'll talk about the international front first. I talked a little bit about how we've been successful in exporting CANDU technology. We are pursuing right now four major new-build opportunities. I talk about Argentina, where a single CANDU unit project is being committed, as per our press release about a week and a half ago; Romania, where there are two additional CANDU units; the U.K., concerning which we're conducting a study in which the eventual decision would be for the deployment of four CANDU units; then China, where the initial discussion is for two new CANDU units—there are two existing there already. Those two demonstration units, as we're calling them, for the AFCR are being planned, and we're looking with our partners at a large-scale fleet of CANDU reactors. We're talking about six to twelve units.
In the Chinese context, we're positioning the AFCR as a synergistic technology with China's existing light-water reactor fleet. China is going to build about 150 reactors in the next 20 years, and we've shown that through the use of CANDUs consuming recycled uranium, the optimal ratio for deployment is about 4:1. When we talk about 100 units, we can talk about 20 CANDU units in the long term.
The numbers I just gave you there are for something we'd talk about as happening in the five- to ten-year term, but this is still a substantial number, eight to ten units.
Within Canada we're always pursuing opportunities. Some of my colleagues, when we were AECL, were pursuing opportunities in the oil sands back in about 2008 and 2009, particularly working with oil companies on finding ways to decarbonize oil extraction technologies. We had a lot of progress there.
New Brunswick has a licensed site and would be very interested in building another CANDU unit there. At the Darlington site there is an environmental assessment and availability for two additional CANDU units. It's a function of load growth within the various provinces.
I mentioned the environment and climate change report that they submitted to the UN, which saw five scenarios, in which there's a fivefold increase in nuclear in Canada. That would have to happen outside of Ontario. Whether it's in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Quebec, British Columbia, or the north, there have to be opportunities outside of the province of Ontario.
We think there are a number of opportunities. For Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall actively talks about the role that nuclear plays, as they have uranium there. Alberta has not been a hotbed of activity, I'll call it, these days, but the move towards a carbon pricing mechanism and decarbonization presents a real opportunity for nuclear in that province. These are discussions that we're very interested in engaging in.
We won't deny that nuclear is a politically sensitive topic. Windmills and solar panels are not so, in some contexts, but as your colleague mentioned, when people start talking about nuclear, sometimes there is a lot of negative reaction.
Our view, as per my statement, is that we want to engage, as I said, in a science- and fact-based discussion. That really should be the underpinnings of the policy decisions that are made.