# AECL firesale



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

AECL is being sold to SNC for $15M.
Shouldn't that be a *B* instead of a _M_?
This behemoth has sucked > $1B just in the last 2 years.
There appears to be still several hundred Million $$ subsidy earmarked for the next 1 yr.
So what's with the $15M price tag?

I know there is a royalty and trademarks component to the deal that the federal govt. is retaining, but WTF?

Is the tax payer getting screwed in this bargain?


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## DanFo (Apr 9, 2011)

Not all of AECL was sold, just the reactor construction/maintenance divisions. I'm guessing there is more money to be made in the maintenance division then building new since the market for CANDU's is so small, perhaps Darlington's new build. With the new design the cost and building schedules would just be a guess which is risky..If they build a new Candu 6 the costs and building schedules are predictable since they've built a few already. Chalk river labs (NRU) is still government owned/operated.

As for the price, My guess is it's hard to find buyers for a large employer that can't show evidence of postive returns or even completing recent projects on time. 

Since AECL was one of the few companies able to do reactor mainenace SNC basically got gaurenteed maintenance contracts, however they'll now have to take on the cost risks of delays but SNC has more resources to use and will probably become more efficient than AECL ever was since the new company has to answer to investors.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

That's about all it's worth. If it was a private company, it would have been
shut down long ago. Too many costs overruns on reactor projects it got over
the years and something had to be done for the federal gov't to get rid of
it. The gov't shouldn't be in business..just serve as a regulator.

Even with the sale, the gov't still has to wrap up the sale with $75 million
of taxpayer dollars to complete existing projects. On the world markets,
they are lagging way behind the other nuclear generator manufacturers
on costs and huge cost overruns. 
While there may be a "brain drain" similar to the Avro Arrow (which was cancelled
for political reasons), and 800 jobs or more laid off, it's about time for that
lame duck. 

on line source...

The company lost $800 million last year, and has not sold a new reactor since the 1990s. However, some reports said AECL's business was hindered by a cap on new contracts that the government had ordered during the sale process, to avoid having the company burdened with new liabilities.


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