OTTAWA - Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding on next-generation reactors for India as the Canadian government closes in on a co-operation deal with the long-time nuclear renegade nation.
It's a watershed moment for Canada, which angrily stopped nuclear co-operation with India in 1974 after the government used plutonium from a Canadian reactor to build an atomic bomb.
International Trade Minister Stockwell Day made the announcement Thursday from Mumbai, where he was wrapping up a four-day trade mission with some of the top CEOs of Canada's nuclear industry.
At the urging of the United States, the international community agreed last September to lift the three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India -- even though India still refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The end of the moratorium has sparked a global sales rush to the rising economic power, which wants to build 25 to 30 new reactors in coming years. It has also left nuclear non-proliferation advocates deeply uneasy.
"The signals we got very clearly from the government here is that there is room for Canada, there's room for Canada's industry and they want Canada involved," Day said from Mumbai.
Indian officials are very interested in buying Canadian components, uranium and hazardous waste treatment systems, said the minister.
AECL, the troubled Crown Corporation that has recently undergone a potential privatization review by the Conservative government, signed a deal this week with a leading Indian engineering firm to start costing out Candu ACR 1000 reactors -- the prelude to a possible sale.
A formal government-to-government agreement that permits international nuclear inspections must be finalized before any commercial deals are sealed.
"It represents a huge opportunity for Canada and for the Canadian nuclear industry as a whole, not just AECL," said Dale Coffin, a spokesman for the corporation.
There has been a stampede of business to India since the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the international ban Sept. 7.
France's Areva just signed a deal to supply the country with enriched uranium. Britain had a government delegation trolling for business this week, meeting the same Indian officials as Day.
Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan -- the world's third largest uranium producer behind Canada and Australia -- are all eager to do business.
Day said he expects uranium sales from Canadian giant Cameco Corp., whose senior executives accompanied Day on the trade mission, could "move ahead very quickly."
Curiously, while touting the AECL memorandum of understanding, the trade minister did not mention that the deal involves the ACR 1000.
Sales of the next-generation reactor are considered critical to the future of the Crown corporation, and Ontario's provincial government has kept AECL on tenterhooks as it mulls over whether it will stick with the Canadian-owned Crown for its next round of reactor construction.
The Conservative government gave AECL $300 million in last year's budget to help complete design work on the ACR 1000.
At the same time, the Harper government asked for a private review of the heavily subsidized Crown Corporation, with a possible eye to privatizing it in whole or in part. That review has been in the government's hands for some time but has not been released.
