Ok, I've made a lot of fun of the current battles between the CNSC, AECL, and the Harper government. I will write in the style of my favourite mag, the Economist. This is my rational brain talking, when pushed I will deny everything!
The Long Road Home - Canada's Failing Nuclear Legacy
When I go back from Billy's place I always have to roam
The mazy road, the crazy road that leads the long way home.
It has indeed been a crazy road for Canada's AECL. Started in the heat of war, and abandoned, as a child, by its American parents, this organization has seen its share of hills and potholes. This article explains the 'Final Stretch' where AECL goes out, not with bang, but a whimper.
Canada started the Nuclear Age with a tremendous advantage: displaced European scientists, all the heavy water in the world, and a brand new set of sheds in the middle of nowhere. Canada had neutrons, practically the entire world's non-bomb supply, and they made the most of them. Neutrons were flying everwhere, sometimes through people, with no ill effect. It was a great time to be a 'neutron' scientist.
The US thought that neutrons were for more serious stuff, like making bombs and never thought of making a neutron source for civilian purposes. Eventually, the Europeans also got into the game, along with India and Pakistan.
Cheap neutrons gave rise to a great intellectual flowering in Canada, at that great nuclear theme park call Chalk River. Sure, there were accidents, but all stuff got buried in the back forty, and the cancer rates never rose above that of the heavy smokers of the 50's and 60's (see Breakfast at Tiffany's for that!).
They got so good at playing with neutrons, that they were bold enough to aim for the ultimate prize: a nuclear reactor using natural uranium! Nobody else dared to do it, since a few lost neutrons and the reaction fizzled. AECL managed to keep enough going in the CANDU reactors, to spawn a new industry.
In the meantime, back at the ranch, AECL scientists were bombarding everything they could think of, with neutrons. This had a tremendous benefit to medicine, since now doctors had their own neutron generators in the form of hot Cobalt. Cancer research was never the same again! From that work came all the vital isotopes now in use throughout the world.
By now other neutron research reactors were coming on-line. They were a direct threat to Canada's lucrative monopoly. In a bid to stave off this financial disaster, AECL went all out to create a new, bold, series of reactors that could continue world domination. In the meantime, they produced isotopes at a cost way below sustainable levels, with the very old, wartime-designed reactor, which they were running into the ground. This was British-style 'Capital Cannibalization' at its very best!
The last few years have seen AECL desperately milking its monopoly, and using it as a club for more government handouts. AECL has positioned itself as a 'National Champion' or 'Crown Jewels', much like Ontario Hydro, and Al Italia. Needless to say, one can only push this so far.
Now we have the 'nuclear surge', as 'Dubya' would say. Will this be enough to save AECL? Let's look at the facts: The only thing AECL has going for it, is the complete ineptness of the US, in generating isotopes. The Americans have essentially given up on the 'Scientific Method', and gone for political funding through Congress. This doesn't help AECL in the CANDU business, though.
AECL has pinned all its hopes on "CANDU - Next Generation". This is just the old CANDU, but with some stolen enriched fuel (well, it has to come from somewhere!), to make the core a bit more compact. Nobody is really buying it, except, maybe, that sister company, Ontario Hydro, (through its various phony successor companies).
If you have to use enriched fuel anyway, most people opt for the 'Full Monty', which is exemplified by the new Westinghouse design. Ten times less complicated than CANDU, it is a darling of the Chinese, who, everybody, knows, are very smart. AECL is left crying like a losing candidate, in the wings of the nuclear stage.
Now, on top of this sorry saga, comes the final rendering of the body by the vultures. Some people in India may think this very lucky, but AECL does not. They have been caught out in their underpricing of isotopes, by becoming too vital for an honourable death. Every time they try to shut down the old beast, there are cries down the river, the very place where the earthquake-generated radioactive fallout would flow. They are caught between a rock and a hard place, in that they can't push the regulator on the new, unstable reactors, since they have the old, cheap reactor running. And they can't close the rusting hulk, because the new ones haven't been accepted.
Wither AECL? This article argues that it will continue to limp along, destroying any chances for Canada to shine, and it will be ripped to pieces. Horrible collateral damage will ensue, mainly in the areas of regulation and nuclear intelligence. For which bright mind will want to step into this tarpit? They will all go to Google, and hope that the giant information vacuum will come up with a way to power their monstrous server farms. We hear they are interested in fusion....
Yes, its a long road home, and a lonely one in the twilight years of Canada's nuclear promise.
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