Natural Resources committee  The guidance I get from the Government of Canada is clear. As it stands right now, I am to continue to produce isotopes from the NRU reactor until I'm instructed otherwise.

Natural Resources committee  My minister has been very clear as to what her direction is, and that has been for us to return this reactor to service as quickly as we can, and that's what we'll do.

Natural Resources committee  We recommended to the government, and the government accepted that recommendation, so in that respect, the decision to terminate the MAPLEs project very much flowed from AECL, and based on our view that the project was not a wise pathway for us to follow going forward.

Natural Resources committee  I wouldn't assume that it's under the government's direction. I don't know, but I believe that the expert panel has been willing to entertain submissions from many different parties, and certainly any one of them is free to put ideas forward. We at AECL are very prepared to have

Natural Resources committee  You can imagine that there's nobody at AECL who feels comfortable seeing the coverage of this issue in the media. We all feel very keenly the pressures that exist and the intensity with which we have to tackle our challenge.

Natural Resources committee  Well, I would suggest that one of the indirect benefits out of the supply disruptions, not just of our reactor but of the Petten reactor and others, is the increased awareness globally of the fragility and the dependency of the supply chain on a small number of reactors. So we ce

Natural Resources committee  I'll let Mr. Pilkington respond.

Natural Resources committee  Certainly AECL will need to seek funding authorization from the Government of Canada to fully carry out this project. We expect that the government will impose a very serious requirement on us to justify the costs and demonstrate our confidence that the repairs will be carried ou

Natural Resources committee  This is an initiative we have had under way since the decision was made to terminate the MAPLE project, which is now over a year ago. At that time it was clear that in order to fulfill our commitment to produce isotopes for the global marketplace we would have to renew the operat

Natural Resources committee  There is no alternative solution. My interpretation of the minister's remarks is that they reflect the wishes and hopes of all Canadians and all people involved that we will be able to return this reactor to service as soon as humanly possible. She certainly has given us very cle

Natural Resources committee  As I said, we base the guidance we make public on the accumulation of the evidence available to us and the expertise we can bring to bear, both internally at AECL and externally. And the guidance we have provided successively over the past few months of this project has always re

Natural Resources committee  That's a question I'm not sure I can answer. Mr. Pilkington.

Natural Resources committee  That's a comment I'll let you make. I'd prefer to let you make it.

Natural Resources committee  Well, we're stretching my powers of recall, but certainly I could imagine that we would have given the minister assurances that it was our very sincere intention to operate the NRU to the best of our abilities and to ensure that it was a reliable production environment for isotop

Natural Resources committee  It is not in any way different from what I just laid out for you. AECL's governance structure is one that works through a science, technology, and nuclear oversight committee of our board of directors. The board is in turn accountable to the minister. We did just recently prese