RE: [cdn-nucl-l] $100-million a year in public funding for CANDU questioned

["Adam McLean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Well, look at it this way.  According to the Energy Probe Research
Foundation 2000 Annual report financial summary
(http://www.e-p-r-f.org/eprf/documents/eprf2000_financial.pdf), the work
the EPRF does costs about $1.5 million per year.  Is employing 3500 of
Canada's best and brightest engineers and scientists, designing the
safest reactor system in the world, providing power economically and
environmentally to 7 countries around the world, worth 100/1.5 ~ 67
times the effort put toward convincing the public that really, we need
automatic rocket systems placed there to protect them from airlines
crashing from the sky into 4 feet thick reinforced concrete structures?

You know, if countries looking to purchase nuclear plants didn't buy
CANDU's, they might all buy RBMK's.  We definitely don't want that :)

Adam

P.s. you know what's a little funny - in the EPRF financial statement,
page 4, under expenses, 'research' is listed on the same line as
'materials', and 'postage' :)  Does AECL's research budget include all
their postage costs???


-----Original Message-----
From: cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA
[mailto:cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA] On Behalf Of Tom
Adams
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 2:33 PM
To: CNS listserv
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] $100-million a year in public funding for CANDU
questioned


National Post   January 16/2002

$100-million a year in public funding for CANDU questioned   by
                      Peter O'Neil

                      Nuclear reactor program under review

                      OTTAWA . Herb Dhaliwal, the federal Minister of
Natural Resources,
                      said yesterday a review is underway to determine
whether Canadian
                      taxpayers should keep subsidizing the CANDU
reactor sales program to
                      the tune of $100-million a year. Mr. Dhaliwal,
only hours after taking
                      over the portfolio, said a report will soon be
presented to Cabinet to
                      determine whether there are sufficient prospects
for future sales of the
                      reactor.

                      Canada has been a world leader in developing the
CANDU nuclear
                      reactor, he said, but Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
(AECL) has not
                      made a sale since two reactors were purchased by
China in 1996. So a
                      long-term review of the program will determine
whether there is reason
                      to terminate taxpayer subsidies, Mr. Dhaliwal, who
replaces Ralph
                      Goodale in the portfolio, said in an interview.
"That's one of the options
                      we need to look at. "That's what the review's all
about - to say, 'What is
                      the future of our CANDU reactor and atomic
energy?' Because if we're
                      not making any sales and there's no potential,
should we continue to
                      invest in those areas or not?"

                      There are CANDU reactors in operation in Ontario,
Quebec and New
                      Brunswick, and overseas sales have been made to
countries such as
                      China and South Korea. AECL, a 40-year-old Crown
corporation that
                      employs 3,500 in Canada and around the world,
calls itself the third-
                      largest global supplier of nuclear energy systems.
The company has
                      received taxpayer subsidies totalling at least
$5-billion over its lifespan.
                      Officials at AECL refused to comment.


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