Rehabilitating the CANDU Reactor: The Ontario Hydro Strategy

In many ways, this is a very timely conference for the nuclear industries in both our countries - but for very different reasons. Your nations is undertaking a major nuclear expansion program to fuel sustained economic growth that is the envy of much of the world. In Canada, the situation is just the opposite. We are now taking a pause after three decades of almost continual nuclear expansion. I'll explain the reasons for that pause in a moment. Bur first, I'd like to point out that this is a significant anniversary for Ontario Hydro, Atomic Energy Canada and the other members of the Canadian nuclear industry. Thirty years ago this June, electricity from a nuclear reactor - the 25 megawatt Nuclear Power Development near Rolphton - was first fed into the Ontario electrical grid. It was a momentous occasion for the Canadian nuclear industry, the culmination of more than two decades of Canadian scientific research. Rolphton introduced the world to a new reactor system, the CANDU. That system has evolved and advanced over the years, and as we see here today, it has expanded around the world. Ontario Hydro was the first utility to embrace the CANDU reactor, and we have made the deepest commitment to the technology over the years. Today, 18 large CANDU units are in service in Ontario provide more than half of the province's total electricity. Another two are nearing completion. However, for the first time in three decades, we have no new nuclear plants on the drawing board or even on the horizon. Once the Darlington station is completed later this year, our nuclear program will be entirely focused on the operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of our existing units