A new, untried reactor design that’s considered critical to the future of Canada’s flagship nuclear technology company is set to receive another $135-million taxpayer injection.
OTTAWA
A new, untried reactor design that’s considered critical to the future of Canada’s flagship nuclear technology company is set to receive another $135-million taxpayer injection.
The latest funding for the Advanced Candu Reactor, or ACR 1000, is part of the $351 million budgeted for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. in the federal budget, The Canadian Press has learned.
According to a preliminary government list obtained by The Canadian Press, the ACR 1000 development is tabbed for $135 million.
There is also $72 million to decommission the two failed MAPLE medical isotope reactors at Chalk River, Ont., and $144 million “to maintain safe and reliable operations” at the Chalk River laboratories.
By some counts, AECL’s overall federal stipend for 2009-10 is the biggest one-year subsidy to the Crown corporation since 1981, and the Conservative government hasn’t provided an itemized breakdown of what the money is for.
A spokeswoman for Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt insisted Tuesday there’s been no final determination on how the AECL funding will be apportioned.
“As laid out in Budget 09, $351 million will be provided to AECL for operations, the development of ACR, and the maintenance of safe, reliable operations at Chalk River Laboratories,” Jasmine MacDonnell said in an email.
“Breakdowns are not final at this time as they are subject to approval.”
But Hugh MacDiarmid, AECL’s CEO, did not dispute the numbers in an interview Tuesday. He also said more taxpayer support for the ACR 1000 will be needed.
“There will be a lesser amount in future years of basic engineering that needs to be done to complete the basic design,” said MacDiarmid.
“But then there will be another amount of detailed engineering that’s specific to a site, once we identify a site where we can build.”
Federal funding for development of the next-generation reactor is politically and commercially sensitive.
The AECL design is currently competing against a bid by France-based Areva as an option for Ontario’s nuclear generation expansion, with a decision from the provincial government expected this spring.
“It’s now make-or-break time,” said Bryne Purchase, a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and former Ontario deputy minister of energy.
“They have to win this Ontario competition or they’ve pretty much had it as a credible purveyor of advanced nuclear reactors around the world.”
The Ontario tender lays out strict and relatively tight timelines, and MacDiarmid said if AECL wins the bid, construction would start in 2012.
That puts tremendous stress on the ACR design team. “They have to be credible on the, quote-unquote, design readiness,” said Purchase.
Canadian Press
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