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• Ontario reactor bid deadline extended

  [The Canadian Press, 26 July] Ontario's energy minister, George Smitherman, has announced that the deadline for reactor vendors to submit bids for two new reactors at the existing Darlington site has been extended. In June, the provincial government asked Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), Westinghouse and Areva to submit bids by 1 October. However, the deadline has now been extended until the end of 2008. Smitherson said: "Because of the complicated nature of the transaction, there deemed to be warranted some additional time to work our way through those details so that we can continue to ensure proponents who will be bidding in a competitive way." He added that the extension was the result of a consensus request among the companies and the team overseeing the reactor procurement. The Canadian province hopes to have the new reactors operating at Darlington by 2018 as part of its $26 billion nuclear program. Smitherson replaced Gerry Phillips as energy minister last month following a cabinet reshuffle by Premier Dalton McGuinty. Posted Jul 28 2008, 11:13 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: New Nuclear Plants, AECL, Darlington

• AECL sued over reactor cancellation

  Global life sciences company MDS has launched proceedings including a $1.6 billion compensation claim against Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd over the abandonment of work on two isotope production reactors. Posted Jul 10 2008, 11:23 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: AECL

• Jordan links up with AECL

  Jordan has signed an agreement with Canadian reactor vendor AECL, while a domestic phosphate company is studying the production of uranium. Desalination of seawater is seen as a likely application for nuclear power in Jordan. Posted Jul 02 2008, 05:36 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: AECL

• AECL bows out of UK race

  Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) has withdrawn its ACR-1000 nuclear reactor design from the UK's current design assessment program, saying it wanted to address "major nuclear new build opportunities in the Canadian utility market" where 22 of its Candu pressurized heavy water reactors already exist and plans for up to nine more are being drawn up. This means that Areva's EPR, GE-Hitachi's ESBWR and Westinghouse's AP1000 will go forward to the next stage of more detailed analysis by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) before likely gaining Generic Design Acceptance (GDA). Because of time and manpower constraints, the NII only has the manpower to examine three designs concurrently. Once a reactor design has GDA, a prospective builder could combine that with certification of a site as suitable for a nuclear reactor and make a formal planning application to build. AECL president and chief executive Hugh MacDiarmid said: "We feel very strongly that our best course of action to ensure the ACR-1000 is successful in the global market is to focus first and foremost on the opportunities in Canada." The company said it had "deferred further participation" in the current UK licensing process "until the joint regulator's second wave" of reactor designs. "The UK market remains of great interest to us in the longer term for the ACR-1000 once it is established in Canada," said MacDairmid. Posted Apr 04 2008, 01:49 PM by World Nuclear News Filed under: AECL

• Chalk River nuclear chief to step down

  Brian McGee will step down in May from his position as senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL). The change comes in the wake of the medical isotope supply crisis which has already cost Linda Keen her position as president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The crisis began in November 2007 after AECL failed to upgrade safety-related power systems at the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor to CNSC's satisfaction. McGee will participate in a review of the circumstances surrounding last year's crisis, jointly sponsored by AECL and the CNSC. McGee said in an AECL statement: "During the two years I've led the Chalk River team we have made significant improvements and progress throughout the organisation, particularly in the areas of safety, operational excellence and leadership performance." David Torgerson, president of AECL's research and technology division, expressed regret in accepting McGee's resignation and added: "Brian has brought strong personal leadership to AECL as he has worked tirelessly to enhance safe operations as a primary mission, knowing that safety drives excellence in all other areas." Posted Feb 21 2008, 08:44 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: AECL, Chalk River

• Canadian reactor outage hits nuclear medicine supply

  Operator Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) has announced an extension of an outage at a Canadian research reactor used to produce radioisotopes for nuclear medicine. Meanwhile, national regulators have discovered licence violations at the reactor. Posted Dec 07 2007, 10:16 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: AECL