Foreign reactor bids could cause $29M expense
Canada's nuclear-safety watchdog lacks expertise in the type of light-water reactors made by AECL's competitors and would have to bring in specialists to review licence applications if competitors enter bids.
"It is estimated that there will be two applications with this design requiring outsourced technical expertise at an estimated cost of $29 million over five years," says a memo prepared by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Those applications would come from Areva of France and Westinghouse Electric of the U.S.
There are no light-water reactors in Canada – AECL makes Candu heavy-water reactors – so the commission never needed much expertise in the area, says another memo.
Commission spokesperson Aurèle Gervais said the $29 million would not be spent if no firm applies for a light-water reactor licence.
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If you pass an electrical current through a material, the way that current generates heat can be described by Joule's first law. It's been observed time and time again, with the temperature always evenly distributed when the material is homogeneous (or uniform).
But not in this recent experiment. A section - and only a section - of silicate glass became so hot that it melted, and even evaporated. Moreover, it did so at a much…
