This is the classic neutron gap and what are we going to do.
First of all, in our contract when we were established here, there was a clear indication from government—the previous government—that it didn't have an interest at that time in having a new reactor.
The way I portray it with the staff at the site is that first we have to figure out how to do our knitting better. We have to show that we can deliver projects. You were talking to the Point Lepreau people before about how we can execute a project, execute the projects that we have in front of us, in a very efficient way and then maybe in the future there will be potential. Potentially an SMR could be filling part of those needs, so we're pursuing that.
You're saying there's a pall coming over the site because the reactor is coming down. There is no doubt that when we came in there was a lot of nervousness as to what this contract was going to be about, that it was going to be simply cleanup, which is a very important part of our mission, to clean up the liability that we have. Billions of dollars' worth needs to be taken care of. However, we understand that our overall mission in the long term is for more science and technology.
If people start to really look around more and at things such as our new Brockhouse facility, that's a huge investment by government, more than $100 million, with state-of-the-art facilities that will impact not only the nuclear industry, but energy in general around the world. These are world-class and state-of-the-art; you can't see them anywhere else. We want to do similar things in other technologies as well.
Part of the problem has been at the site in the past, that everything revolved around the NRU reactor, and without that, there is no more. I don't agree with that. I think what we do in hydrogen, in biology, in fuel manufacturing, in our examination for post-irradiation materials that we get, all those things are worthy missions that we can do without having a neutron source, that will keep us busy, active, and contributing far into the future.
However, on a personal note, I'd love to have another reactor.