November 28, 2006

'Team Candu' ready to build

MONTREAL

The nuclear division of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is looking for growth in Ontario and internationally, both on its own and as a member of Team Candu, a group of private-sector companies that have teamed up with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.

“We have good potential as long as the nuclear renaissance stays alive,” said Patrick Lamarre, president and CEO of SNC-Lavalin Nuclear Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin.

The nuclear division of the Montreal-based engineering and construction company is already doing refurbishing work on reactors at Ontario’s Bruce Power on Lake Huron, Lamarre said.

Ontario has 20 nuclear power plants, 16 of which are operating, that provide about 50 per cent of Ontario’s electricity.

Members of Team Candu, formed last spring, have already built reactors internationally and they are looking squarely at Ontario.

Team Candu is aiming to build two new nuclear units at the existing Darlington facility, east of Oshawa, Ont., that would come on line in about eight to 10 years.

The team also consists of Babcock & Wilcox Canada, GE Canada and Hitachi Canada.

Lamarre said Team Candu’s focus is on Ontario to make sure the project goes ahead.

“We would like to believe we would start discussions or there would be a go-ahead to start the processes any time now,” he said in an interview.

The two new reactors proposed for Ontario “could easily go up to six or eight (reactors) in the years to come,” he said.

He also cited the potential to build or refurbish aging reactors in other countries. The potential for Team Candu is billions of dollars of contracts with its members all getting a portion, Lamarre said.

“You don’t need a lot of projects to be extremely busy. Each project is worth a few billion.”

Dale Coffin, spokesman for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, said if plans for the two second-generation Ontario reactors go ahead, they would be a first for AECL.

“We’ve been building around the world but historically we haven’t built here in Ontario before,’’ he said, adding there was only some involvement in the original Darlington project, east of Toronto on Lake Ontario.

“In the last 10 years we’ve built six reactors around the world on time and on budget.’’

Coffin wouldn’t comment on recent media reports that the Conservative government might sell the Crown corporation that builds Candu reactors used in Canada and elsewhere.

CANADIAN PRESS

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