CNBC moves back to AECL amidst changing mandates of research organizations

Funding, access secure for two years

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (CNBC) has been transferred back to Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL). The move, effective April 1st, comes with a commitment of just two years of funding as the federal government implements a government-owned, company-operated (GoCo) management structure for the crown corporation and decides whether to continue long-term nuclear research at the Chalk River facility.

It's currently unclear whether CNBC will fit the new AECL mandate as the government is still pondering whether to add a fourth mandate to continue investing in longer-term nuclear innovation (R$, July 11/13).

CNBC has been supported primarily by the National Research Council (NRC) for the past 16 years since it was cut loose by AECL when it exited all research related to CANDU reactor development (R$, February 5/97). The research unit - which has specialized research equipment and instrumentation worth more than $30 million and is afforded critical access to AECL aging National Research Universal (NRU) reactor - is essential to the future of Canada's neutron scattering research community and the training of skilled personnel. CNBC has six beamlines that it uses for research.

The facility is used each year by more than 200 scientists, engineers and students from universities, industry and government laboratories each year and hosts more than 200 visiting foreign researchers. It has an annual operating budget of approximately $4 million, with 60% coming from the NRC.

Industry contributes 10-15% to the operating budget, with users coming from the nuclear energy, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, defence and primary metal production sectors.

Up until 2012, an additional 30% of operating funds were provided through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's Major Resources Support (MRS) program. That funding was lost when a moratorium was imposed on that program, although AECL funding has helped reduce the shortfall to allow academic researchers to continue using the facility.

Pat Quinn, AECL's director of corporate communications, says that while he is unable to comment on budget details, a review of the CNBC Biennial Report provides a sufficient overview of the centre's funding breakdown.

"As one aspect of AECL restructuring, the business case for an industry driven, cost-shared nuclear innovation agenda is being assessed. The highly specialized facilities (CNBC) and expertise could be an important aspect of this," he says. "We're working with them to put its activities on a more sustainable footing ... "We've assumed responsibility to look at funding requirements."

As for making up for the shortfall due to the withdrawal of NSERC's MRS funding, Quinn says "we're seeking opportunities for third party funding".

NRC transformation prompts shift

The impetus for the latest shift in funding responsibility comes from the transformation of the NRC into an industry-facing research and technology organization (RTO). Since the transformation began, 20 research areas including the CNBC have been already discontinued as it sheds low impact activities and facilities.

"They (the NRC) were told by the government they had to be more industrially relevant and we were one of the most basic of the NRC's (former) Stacie Institute (for Molecular Sciences). With the transformation we were put into the (security and) disruptive technologies division," says Dr Bill Buyers, former director of AECL's Condensed Matter Science program and a guest research at CNBC. "This was a program where we knew we could survive, then we got this other surprise ... We're now paid by AECL but we're on a short leash until they decide what to do with us ... We're being thrown back to AECL in 2013 after being thrown out in 1997."

CNBC enjoys significant industry use

Buyers says CNBC is an industrially oriented basic research group which is used by the academic and industrial communities seeking research time on its beamlines. Future access ultimately hinges the government's decision on whether to replace the 56-year-old NRU which is licensed to operate until 2016 with the potential for a further five-year licence to 2021. It's estimated that it will cost upwards of $1 billion to replace the NRU, although AECL scientists are keeping a close watch on smaller, more affordable 4th generation nuclear reactors which are currently being designed.

"Being seconded to AECL from NRC is actually quite a good thing as it partially restored part of our budget that was cut by NSERC. But there's only two years of funding guaranteed and AECL says we have to do more things of use to industry and we can't count work we do for AECL," says Buyers, who began his research career in 1965. "Over my 48-year career, I didn't see too many changes until the layoff from AECL in 1997. It's been a bit uphill since then."

CNBC is one of about 20 neutron beam laboratories worldwide and its researchers collaborate with counterparts from more than 20 countries, helping to foster an international culture of nuclear innovation. Reactors in all countries are government-owned and are operated under a variety of management structures including GoCo. Buyers says Canadian neutron scattering researchers don't have an issue with AECL adopting a GoCo model, but he is clear that industry should not be expected to shoulder any of the costs of replacing the Chalk River reactor, should the government opt to do so.

"There's a chance the government will realize it needs to retain the capacity of neutron beams (and) AECL would want to have the ability to do research even in its new (GoCo) form," says Buyer. "University people who do this work in every country where there's a neutron reactor do not own or operate the sources of the neutrons. There's no way a company will help pay for a new reactor." It won't happen. Even the new reactor in Australia (The OPAL Open Pool Australian Light-water reactor, commissioned in 2006) was paid for by their government."

Major neutron gap looming

As government indecision over a new reactor stretches into decades, the neutron scattering community and other researchers are increasingly concerned over the inevitable prospect of a neutron gap. Loss of access to the NRU occurred in 2009 when a leak forced AECL to shut down the reactor for 15 months, prompting some Canadian researchers to seek out beam time on reactors in other countries.

Given the 8-10-year timeline required to design and build a replacement reactor, Canada is already looking at a significant neutron gap if the NRU can't be licensed beyond 2016.

"We may have a gap of three-to-five years which will be a serious blow but it won't kill it (the research community). We can use foreign sources in the meantime and I'm sure researchers would flood back if they had a new reactor in Canada to use," says Buyers. "It's much more expensive to shut a reactor down than replace it. It goes back to the question of the need for independent nuclear electrical capability in Canada, which is a long way of saying we need to keep CANDU going."

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