October 20, 2009
Hefty repair cost to fix isotope reactor
Canwest News
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has put a $70-million price tag on repairing its downed Chalk River reactor.
That was the estimate given Monday by AECL’s chief nuclear officer to a House of Commons committee looking into the isotope shortage.
Bill Pilkington, who is also the Crown company’s senior vice-president, said that figure includes lost revenue from selling medical isotopes as well as physical repairs to the facility at Chalk River, Ont.
New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen questioned the wisdom of putting millions into the 52-year-old National Research Universal reactor, which has been plagued by shutdowns in recent years.
“When does the tipping point hit for Chalk River?” he said.
Pilkington defended the cost.
“We are committed to operating the NRU through … 2011 to 2016. We believe it can be operated cost-effectively beyond that point,” he said. “There is no defined end date that the NRU would be taken out of service. And that will be determined as we continue to gather data on the aging over the years ahead.”
Pilkington said the $70 million is over and above AECL’s annual budget to operate the Chalk River facility, which is about $120 million. He added that the federal government has not yet committed the repair money. The Chalk River reactor supplied a third of the world’s medical isotopes until AECL shut it down in mid-May after it found a pinprick-sized radioactive water leak.
