Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. MacDiarmid and Mr. Hawryluk for being here.
You have at least this member at a decided disadvantage. You've listed a number of issues as to why the MAPLE reactor is being abandoned, and you used the term “deficiencies”. You said it was improbable--not impossible, but improbable--that these deficiencies could be accommodated.
The one you've selected is the one I have the most difficulty understanding. That's the PCR. PCR, for the members of the committee--and I think Mr. Trost would understand this--is the power coefficient of reactivity.
In other words, you have decided to abandon the MAPLE project, notwithstanding consumer and international issues with respect to other facilities coming on board, because it's improbable that the PCR issue could be accommodated.
Is that the conclusion you reached in the April 2008 study that the minister referred to? Is that the major part of the study?