Natural Resources committee  I have just a very brief comment that the NWMO in Ontario is being engaged quite extensively with indigenous groups in siting waste depositories. I've heard debates and discussion, which I think have been constructive. Whether it's going to achieve its ends is another question, b

Natural Resources committee  I think it's very timely, given the circumstances of the move to phase out coal. I think that if we only look at cost, first of all, then we're missing part of the dimension. Nuclear is a base load of power supply. It runs best when it's running full out all the time. It provides

Natural Resources committee  Sure. It's a subject close to my heart, but I'll try to keep it short if I can. We've seen a great deal of R and D in Canada that has not always resulted in achieved results in terms of new power plants built or new research results, so R and D is an unpredictable business. It m

Natural Resources committee  I'll make a few comments to kick it off. I think Canada has had a decades-long program looking into the management of the most serious nuclear waste—that is the used nuclear fuel—and has been managing its nuclear waste all this time. Canada, like some of the other early nucle

Natural Resources committee  It is coming up and it's going to happen, so we should be prepared for it. I will make two comments. One is that OPG is already engaged, as it happens, with UNENE in researching techniques to dismantle and decommission the Pickering unit, so it is taking action and it's being pr

Natural Resources committee  If you don't mind, I'll add another point to this question of cost to follow up on what Glenn mentioned with regard to how to develop a small modular reactor type or how to deploy small modular reactors. I think one of the other areas where cost has been affected is the changing

Natural Resources committee  I'll take a shortcut on this. The most significant way to reduce costs would be in replication. The reason that nuclear plants have been expensive and have run over budget, which is perhaps even more of a concern because it leads to uncertainty in the minds of those who are inves

Natural Resources committee  I have one or two comments. One is that the nuclear power building industry has been very cyclical, and the last two decades have been a low part of that cycle. CANDU went through a good period of building in the 1990s to the 2000s, and then subsequent to that, there has been a

Natural Resources committee  Of course, I can't comment on the details of the agreement. It's not something I'm fully aware of, although in my previous life I had some knowledge of it. I would comment on two or three different aspects. One is that Canada's nuclear technology, which the country paid for in

Natural Resources committee  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 o