Toronto, December 18: The Canadian government put the nuclear reactor division of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited up for sale Thursday, saying investors would help strengthen its global presence and cut costs to taxpayers.
Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said it is the next step in restructuring the government-owned corporation.
“Nuclear energy is an emission-free source of power that is experiencing a renaissance around the world,” Raitt said in a statement released Thursday.
The government gave no figure on how much the division might be sold for.
Canada’s Conservative government announced last May it would put parts of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, on sale after a study found there was private sector interest in a stand-alone CANDU reactor business.
CANDU reactors are pressurized heavy water reactors. There are 32 CANDU reactors operating worldwide, including 20 in Canada, according to government figures. The others are located in Pakistan, Argentina, Romania, South Korea, China and India. The heavy water technology represents almost 10 percent of reactor capacity around the globe.
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has a profitable international service operation with 18 CANDUs currently working or being refurbished around the world.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper finalized an agreement with India on civilian nuclear technology co-operation late last month during a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago. Some market observers feel the Canada-India deal could boost the reactor refurbishment side of Atomic Energy. India has developed its own expertise on heavy-water reactors during the 30-year hiatus since Canada helped India attain nuclear capability.
Several companies have expressed tentative interest in buying a piece of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, including Montreal’s SNC-Lavalin and Areva Group of France.
However, the government may have undercut its own bargaining position when Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman described the corporation as a “dysfunctional” 30 billion-dollar (US$28 billion) “sinkhole” last June.
That same month, the Ontario government put off a decision on new reactor construction after deciding all the bids were too costly.
The sale will not affect AECL’s troubled reactor at its Chalk River plant in Ontario, one of the world’s leading suppliers of medical isotopes. Isotopes are used for medical imaging to diagnose cancer and heart disease.
The 52-year-old reactor is currently shut for repairs. The shutdown has sparked a worldwide shortage of radioactive isotopes, which are injected into patients so radiologists can pinpoint areas of higher radiation and spot changes in the body to enable them to make more accurate diagnoses.
–Agencies