“Is the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario doing anything to insure AECL wins the bid to build new nuclear reactors in Ontario?”

I want to provide some context to this question so it can be understood how important the decision is. There are a number of reasons why choosing AECL is vital.

The first reason is safety, which I believe is the most important aspect of nuclear reactors. The ACR-1000, like its CANDU 6 predecessor, has 2, independent, fast-acting, shutdown systems. All the other major designs, including Areva’s US-EPR and Westinghouse’s AP1000 have 1 shutdown system (using their control rods, in a CANDU the control rods and shutoff rods are separate!). This means that the ACR-1000 is orders of magnitudes safer then its competitors (for the technical reader, and if I remember correctly, the probability that one shutdown system will fail is 1/500,000. Therefore on a CANDU and ACR-1000, the chance of both shutdown systems failing, and potentially leading to a meltdown, is 1/250,000,000,000, that’s 500,000 times safer then the competition).

The second point, and also extremely important, is jobs and the economy. Ontario’s economy has been slumping and it looks to be heading to the have-not province category. By choosing a foreign company, billions of dollars will be sent to the foreign country chosen instead of being pumped back into the weak economy. Choosing a foreign technology will also deal lasting damage to AECL and will essentially leave the company to refurbish old CANDU reactors. Furthermore, if AECL is going to be taken out of the nuclear business, the 100+ Canadian companies in the nuclear industry will also suffer and many will probably close down.

The third point is cost. If an Areva or Westinghouse reactor is chosen, Darlington will have two completely different reactors operating at one generating station. This means that there will need to be a large number of new staff who won’t be able to share experience with current staff. CNSC will have to hire a whole host of new people who will be familiar with these new designs. Furthermore, AECL will clearly offer the best possible price since it is not out to really (or at all) make a profit. While Areva and Westinghouse might absorb some losses in their first Ontario build, the next reactors will cost a lot more.

The last point to make is that France would _never_ consider building anything other then an Areva reactor. They have invested billions in Areva and it just doesn’t make sense to choose anything else. The same applies to Canada. Yet Mr. McGuinty thinks it’s a good idea to have an open bid. I understand he wants to pressure AECL and the federal government, but he’s wasting everyone’s time and money when he should have starting construction already. Choosing anything but AECL would be absurd.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I really hope you’ll have a chance to ask my question during the interview. Keep up the great work. Thank you!

P.S. No, I don’t work for the nuclear industry (as my username says, I’m a programmer). I have just researched nuclear technology thoroughly and I’m passionate about it. I suggest others do the same