AECL displays Candu attitude over UK power

The recent report from the government's energy review is widely seen as ushering in a UK nuclear revival.

Ala Alizadeh, who is in charge of selling AECL's reactor in Europe, plans to meet high-level officials in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and directors at power firms such as British Energy, Centrica and the UK arms of Eon, RWE and EdF.

A spokesman for the company said: You can be sure they're seeing all the serious players in the UK nuclear industry over the next week.

The political ground has been well-prepared. Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper met Tony Blair recently ahead of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. During his visit, Harper actively promoted the Candu reactor.

He told a meeting of businessmen: We hope youll remember that Canada is not just a source of uranium. We also manufacture state-of-the-art reactor technology, and were world leaders in the safe management of fuel waste, which is one more reason to think of Canada as an energy superpower and a strong candidate for British investment.

Harper said Canada rivalled Russia as the worlds leading energy superpower, given the huge oil reserves locked in its oil sands and the worlds largest uranium reserves. Although the Candu reactor is seen as third in line for the UK after Westinghouses AP1000 and Arevas EPR reactor, it has proved an extremely popular design, reponsible for about a third of the nuclear reactors built worldwide over the past decade.

AECL claims the Candu generates electricity for an average 88% of its lifespan, better than any competitor, and it uses less uranium for each unit of power.

British Energy, which owns Britain's most modern nuclear reactors and is likely to be involved in any new build programme, knows the design well. Before its financial collapse three years ago, British Energy ran a group of Candu reactors through its stake in Canada's Bruce Power.

The Candu is also the only reactor apart from the Areva's EPR which is being built in Europe. Romania's Nuclearelectria plans is building a new Candu unit to supplement an exisiting plant built between 1992 and 1996. The second unit is likely to be completed in 2007.

The UKs energy review stopped short of offering any subsidies to companies to encourage them to build new nuclear power stations.

But it removed the planning obstacles that have dogged past attempts to build new plants by removing the rights of local planning enquiries to debate the economic or safety aspects of new plant.