To no one’s surprise, the Canadian government has announced it wants to sell the reactor part of Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL). What exactly that entails is not clear. The government says it is open to any and all offers, from some kind of public-private partnership to full 100 percent private ownership. It looks like […]

How should Canada resolve the medical isotope crisis? A new report says we should build a new multi-purpose research reactor which can produce isotopes on the side.  Though this is the most expensive of the options presented, the authors point out the impressive benefits a multi-purpose reactor would offer. The logic of this recommendation will, […]

Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman dictator whose ex post facto victory over the original Hannibal has for centuries inspired both admiration and contempt, would applaud the strategies of the major players in the Ontario nuclear reactor competition. The major players are the governments of Ontario and Canada. The decision strategy of each is pure Fabius: […]

Areva is still in the Ontario reactor competition, and remains open to playing a role in the future of Canadian nuclear research, a company executive said in a conference call on September 18. This follows the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s announcement on August 31 that it sees “no fundamental barriers” to licensing the new CANDU reactor in Canada. AECL, […]

Last month the Canadian federal government announced it was going to privatize Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL). The medical isotope part of the business would be separated from power reactors. The feds hoped that this would thereby ease Ontario’s troubled mind as the province, in the middle of finalizing its choice of a vendor to […]

Would Areva, the French nuclear company, buy the power reactor part of Atomic Energy Canada Limited if AECL wins the Ontario reactor competition? I put this question to Jacques Besnainou, president of Areva North America, in a conference call yesterday. The Canadian government decision to sell AECL came as a surprise, was his diplomatic reply. “So we’ll […]

Everybody is wondering where U.S. nuclear policy is going under the current administration and congress. Early indications are not encouraging: the stimulus bill signed last week excluded nuclear power from a package that aims to spur development of low-carbon energy. This though nuclear is by far the most realistic large-scale replacement for coal-fired power. Coal […]

Linda Keen yesterday told Don Newman on CBC’s Politics that the isotope “crisis” that precipitated her firing last January was just a convenient pretext. The real reason, she said, was her determination to introduce international reactor safety standards to Canada. She’s talking about the Ontario reactor competition, of course

How far backward can Canada bend to win U.S. approval for its aim to import and own uranium enrichment technology? Pretty far, it seems. The federal government surrendered Canada’s dominant position in the international medical isotope market in May when it

Last March, the Harper government finally threw some money at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL): $300 million to finally commercialize its new flagship, the ACR1000 power reactor. AECL, a federal crown corporation, is in the fight of its life in Ontario, where, for the first time, it faces international competition in its bid to […]