AECL focuses its energies to win domestic market

MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO - Atomic Energy of Canada Limited announced that it is focusing its marketing and licensing resources for the Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000) on the immediate needs of the Canadian domestic marketplace.

"The nuclear renaissance has taken hold in Canada as several Canadian provinces are currently considering the ACR as the technology-of-choice for the next generation nuclear technology," says AECL's President and Chief Executive Officer Hugh MacDiarmid. "We believe very strongly that our best course of action to ensure the ACR-1000 is successful in the global market place is to focus first and foremost on establishing it here at home."

Given this new direction, AECL has notified the United Kingdom's nuclear regulators that it will suspend participation of its ACR design in Step 3 of the UK's new build reactor Generic Design Assessment but may re-enter at a later date. The UK regulators - the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency - had announced in March that the ACR and AECL's design program had passed the Step 2 assessment of stringent safety, security and environmental criteria and was eligible to proceed to Step 3.

Mr. MacDiarmid added, "We want to dedicate our resources for the ACR to the markets in Canada. By taking this action now we are well positioned to meet our customer's expectations for product performance, as well as on time and on budget project delivery. We continue to actively pursue opportunities for our CANDU 6 product in several international markets."