MAPLE cancellation prompts MDS lawsuit

The abrupt termination of the Maple reactor program by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) is being called one of the worst planned and managed R&D projects in Canada's history and has spawned a major lawsuit by MDS Inc. MDS filed the lawsuit on behalf of its subsidiary MDS Nordion and is seeking $1.6 billion in damages from AECL and the Government of Canada.

It is also seeking to compel AECL to revive the project and fulfill its 2006 interim and long-term supply agreement for medical isotopes. MAPLE had a long and troubled 12-year history marred by massive cost overruns and delays. AECL was originally contracted to build two reactors for MDS for $145 million to be completed by 2000 and paid for and owned by MDS.

By 2005, the project was five years behind schedule and MDS's investment had exceeded $350 million. Both parties entered mediation, producing a new agreement that would see AECL take possession of the reactors, pay for the remaining R&D and enter into a 40-year isotope supply agreement with MDS. AECL cancelled the project on May 16 without consulting MDS, even though it had sent a progress report four days earlier indicating that the project was "proceeding as planned". AECL has now poured $368 million into MAPLE.

MDS will continue to rely on the aging NRU reactor at Chalk River ON for its isotopes. In service since 1957, the NRU is slated for decommissioning in 2011 but AECL plans to apply for another five-year extension and use it to fulfill its isotope obligations to MDS.

The government is currently examining its options for AECL including its possible sale to the private sector. But Chalk River is a sticking point.

"SNC Lavalin wants to buy into AECL's Sheridan Park but it wants nothing to do with Chalk River," says Fred Boyd, publisher of the Canadian Nuclear Society Bulletin magazine and a long-time AECL observer. "Chalk River should revert to being a national lab and focus on energy and the environment. It has a core of good people there but the idea would take some selling and a champion to sell it to government."

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