CCNI at U of S MOVES AHEAD

[Oscar]

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR NUCLEAR INNOVATION MOVES AHEAD

http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=5e36140e-d06e-4a51-a259-27e4c5460ea4

News Release - February 21, 2012

Minister responsible for Innovation Rob Norris today signed a multi-year agreement for Innovation Saskatchewan to provide funding for the new $30 million Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI), a world-class research centre housed at the University of Saskatchewan to support nuclear research, development and innovation.

"The Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation is a key cornerstone of Saskatchewan's innovation and nuclear agendas," Norris said. "It will play a vital role in advancing our vision for a safe, responsible, value-added nuclear agenda that focuses on nuclear medicine, material science, safety and small reactor technology."

"Building on the university's renowned history in nuclear medicine and accelerator technology, the CCNI will help Saskatchewan build and maintain a community of expertise to engage the broader community in evidence-based conversations about nuclear issues and inform policies on nuclear technologies for the benefit of society and the economy," CCNI Vice-Chair and U of S Vice-President Research Karen Chad said.

"The CCNI's board of directors is a strong team of experienced academics, executives and managers who bring perspectives from universities, colleges, industry, and government agencies, including the University of Saskatchewan, Cameco and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, as examples," CCNI Interim Director and Director of the National Research Council's Canadian Beam Centre John Root said.

The CCNI expects to issue a call for proposals later this spring. Local researchers can partner with outside industry, academics, and governments to submit project proposals, which will then be peer-reviewed and evaluated by an arms-length expert advisory committee of external reviewers against established criteria on alignment, feasibility, quality of partnerships, and the plan for achieving positive impacts in medicine, materials, energy, environmental or social domains.

The CCNI was approved in December by the U of S board of governors as a Type C centre of the University of Saskatchewan. Type C centres are incorporated and legally distinct from the university, but report on their academic and research activities to a vice-president or dean, reflecting the university's academic interest in the centre's activities.

Created in 2009, Innovation Saskatchewan is the central agency of the Government of Saskatchewan with responsibility for co-ordinating Saskatchewan's innovation priorities. Innovation Saskatchewan co-ordinates the strategic direction of the government's research and development and science and technology expenditures; provides advice on science and technology policy; co-ordinates the establishment and maintenance of science, research and development infrastructure; and provides advice and recommendations on research, development, demonstration, and the commercialization of new technologies and innovative processes in Saskatchewan. -30-

For more information, contact:

Rita Flaman Jarrett
Innovation
Saskatoon
Phone: 306-933-5716
Email: rita.flamanjarrett@innovationsask.ca
Cell: 306-270-7654

John Root
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon
Phone: 306-966-4784
Email: john.root@usask.ca

[Oscar]

ROOT: CCNI for Progressive 'innovation'???


----- Original Message -----
From: Elaine Hughes
To: ROOT, John-UofS ; Council of Canadians
Cc: WHO ; TURMEL, Nycole - NDP ; The Current ; SK Tourism ; SK NDP Caucus ; SK Watershed Auth. ; Sierra Club - US ; Sierra Club - Can. ; Safe Communities ; Safe And Green Energy ; Safe Drinking Water Foundation ; LAU, Vi-Leader-SK Green ; May, Elizabeth GPC ; Ralph Goodale, Liberal.ca ; Rae, Bob, Liberal ; Food For All Coalition ; The Ecologist Magazine ; SK Premier Wall ; SK Party Caucus ; Sask Environmental Society ; Sask EcoNetwork ; Greenpeace ; Breitkreuz, G. MP
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 10:14 PM

SUBJECT: ROOT: CCNI for Progressive 'innovation'??

Radioactive medicine can be made without nuclear reactors, scientists show

Dear Mr. John Root
CCNI Interim Director and Director of the National Research Council's Canadian Beam Centre
University of Saskatchewan

Hopefully, as Canada continues its movement towards the Age of Nuclear Waste, some of the Saskatchewan government's 'innovation' will focus on progressive and common sense research at the CCNI instead of their current fossilized mentality towards the outdated, archaic, needless and dangerous use of uranium - for isotopes or anything else!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK

If you have a problem with nuclear waste - stop making it!

= = = = = =

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR NUCLEAR INNOVATION MOVES AHEAD

http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=5e36140e-d06e-4a51-a259-27e4c5460ea4

News Release - February 21, 2012

Minister responsible for Innovation Rob Norris today signed a multi-year agreement for Innovation Saskatchewan to provide funding for the new $30 million Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI), a world-class research centre housed at the University of Saskatchewan to support nuclear research, development and innovation.

"The Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation is a key cornerstone of Saskatchewan's innovation and nuclear agendas," Norris said. "It will play a vital role in advancing our vision for a safe, responsible, value-added nuclear agenda that focuses on nuclear medicine, material science, safety and small reactor technology."

"Building on the university's renowned history in nuclear medicine and accelerator technology, the CCNI will help Saskatchewan build and maintain a community of expertise to engage the broader community in evidence-based conversations about nuclear issues and inform policies on nuclear technologies for the benefit of society and the economy," CCNI Vice-Chair and U of S Vice-President Research Karen Chad said.

"The CCNI's board of directors is a strong team of experienced academics, executives and managers who bring perspectives from universities, colleges, industry, and government agencies, including the University of Saskatchewan, Cameco and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, as examples," CCNI Interim Director and Director of the National Research Council's Canadian Beam Centre John Root said.

- - - SNIP - - -

For more information, contact:

Rita Flaman Jarrett, Innovation, Saskatoon
Phone: 306-933-5716
Email: rita.flamanjarrett@innovationsask.ca
Cell: 306-270-7654

John Root, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
Phone: 306-966-4784
Email: john.root@usask.ca

- - - - -

QUOTE: "By developing a cyclotron-based technology for producing medical isotopes Canada will be contributing to non-proliferation efforts by removing, once and for all, any civilian justification for the use of highly enriched weapons-grade uranium."

Radioactive medicine can be made without nuclear reactors, scientists show

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 2:15 AM
Subject: Radioactive medicine can be made without nuclear reactors, scientists show

Background:

This is an important piece of news. It puts the lie to nuclear proponents who say that we need nuclear reactors to supply hospitals with radioactive isotopes.

CCNR has long maintained that medical isotopes have nothing to do with the debate over whether, or how quickly, to abolish nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

See http://www.ccnr.org/isotope_shortage.html [2007]
and http://www.ccnr.org/isotopes.html [1991]

In fact medical isotopes were used long before the first reactors -- and atomic bombs -- were ever built. And although medical isotopes can be, and have been, and are still, being produced in nuclear reactors, they can alternatively be produced using cyclotrons.

This approach has many advantages:

(1) There is no high-level radioactive waste produced in a cyclotron -- waste that will remain extremely radiotoxic for millions of years.

(2) There is no danger of a catastrophic nuclear accident in a cyclotron. It simply cannot happen.

(3) There is no need for uranium at all. Hence no need for uranium mines and all the radioactive pollution from them.

(4) In particular, there is no need to use weapons-grade uranium, for the purpose of making medical isotopes, as it is currently being used in the Chalk River NRU reactor (despite strong international objections to the civilian use of this dangerous nuclear explosive material).

Iran's Ahmadinejad indirectly points to the Canada practice as his country's justification for enriching uranium to the point of being weapons-grade; "We want to produce medical isotopes," he says. And is it not true that that's just what Canada does?

By developing a cyclotron-based technology for producing medical isotopes Canada will be contributing to non-proliferation
efforts by removing, once and for all, any civilian justification for the use of highly enriched weapons-grade uranium.

Gordon Edwards.

======================================

[At that rate, you could build 330 to 670 new cyclotrons for the cost of one new isotope-producing reactor. - Gordon Edwards]


Radioactive medicine can be made without nuclear reactors, scientists show

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/
Radioactive+medicine+made+without+nuclear+reactors+scientists+show/6181757/story.html

BY MARGARET MUNRO, POSTMEDIA NEWS, FEBRUARY 20, 2012

VANCOUVER — Canadian scientists have shown they can make radioactive medicine without the headache of using aged nuclear reactors.

The new process, which could go a long way toward solving the world's shortage of medical isotopes, uses hospital cyclotrons to make the
compounds and bypasses the need for reactors.

"It's essentially a win-win scenario for health care," Dr. Francois Benard of the BC Cancer Agency told a news conference Monday at the annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"We have found a practical, simple solution that can use existing infrastructure."

The team, led by the TRIUMF nuclear lab based at the University of B.C., has produced technetium-99m in cyclotrons in Ontario and B.C. The scientists describe it as a "major milestone" in the international race to come up with new ways to make the critically important isotope.

Technetium-99m is used to help detect cancers, blocked arteries and heart disease in millions of people around the world each year. The supply is, however, often disrupted because 75 per cent of the technetium-99m is now made at the trouble-prone Chalk River reactor near Ottawa and another aging reactor in the Netherlands.

Canada, which pioneered nuclear medicine, is seen as largely responsible for the precarious state of the global supply. New MAPLE reactors built at Chalk River were to supply the world with medical isotopes, but were mothballed, at a cost of over $500 million to Canadian taxpayers, because of technical flaws.

Several countries are now looking for new ways to make the isotope, and the Harper government last year handed the country's nuclear medicine whizzes $35 million. It challenged them to produce the isotope without using a reactor or weapons-grade uranium, which is now imported from the U.S. to make isotopes in the Chalk River reactor.

"It's a friendly competition," Benard said of the competing Canadian teams. One of the big advantages of his team's approach is that they can use existing cyclotrons — there are 12 across Canada — regardless of brand or type of machine.

"The goal was to develop a technical solution that would work for many people, not just one machine or one brand of machine," said Benard.
Cyclotrons are essentially large electromagnets that accelerate streams of charged particles to incredibly high speed.

The technetium-99m was made in the cyclotrons from molybdenum-100, a naturally occurring compound mined in many parts of the world. Small discs of molybdenum-100 were strategically placed in the cyclotrons and the beams of energy stripped off subatomic particles, transforming the molybdenum-100 into technetium-99m.

It has been known since 1971 that it was possible in principle, but the idea was shelved. "A lot of people were saying this cannot be done, there were too many obstacles," said Benard.

MORE:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/
Radioactive+medicine+made+without+nuclear+reactors+scientists+show/6181757/story.html

mmunro(at)postmedia.com

- - - - - -

Chalk River’s toxic legacy (Video)

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/
Chalk+River+toxic+legacy/5874735/story.html

By Ian MacLeod, The Ottawa Citizen December 29, 2011

CHALK RIVER, Ontario — At 3:07 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12, 1952, the National Research Experimental nuclear reactor, then the most powerful research reactor on Earth, raced out of control, rapidly overheated and exploded, destroying the reactor core and spewing radioactive gases and debris into the atmosphere.

No one was hurt in the world’s first major nuclear accident, but it took hundreds of military personnel months to clean up the partial meltdown.

A flatbed truck used to haul the intensely radioactive core to a nearby burial site was manned by a relay team of drivers, each spending just a few minutes behind the wheel before running away to make room for the next driver, to limit their exposure to lethal radiation.

A portion of the road was buried as radioactive waste. Thousands of litres of radiotoxic water and other contaminated reactor wreckage were put in sandy trenches.

Refuse from that day remains, 59 years later, part of an immense toxic legacy handed down from decades of pioneering research and technological achievement in atomic science and nuclear medicine at Chalk River Laboratories (CRL).

This 37-square-kilometre site along the Ottawa River, two hours upstream from Ottawa, harbours 70 per cent of all the radioactive waste ever produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) and its predecessor, the National Research Council of Canada.

It, and a handful of other sites, comprise the vast radioactive inheritance that government and the industry have struggled with for decades: What to do with almost 70 years worth of atomic rubbish, some of which will be lethal for what amounts to an eternity.

MORE:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/
Chalk+River+toxic+legacy/5874735/story.html

- - - - - -

More on This Story

Graphic: Chalk River cleanup challenge
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/atomi ... index.html

Types of nuclear waste at Chalk River
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Types+nuclear+waste+Chalk+River/5874753/story.html

Other sources and acknowledgments http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/
Other+sources+acknowledgments/5874440/story.html

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spurned-ex-head-of-the-nuclear-safety-commission-to-back-elizabeth-may/
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Ken Gray Column: Probe The Nuclear Establishment To The Core
http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/archives/
story.html?id=626ed1e8-8af8-40e3-9ed6-63cd8508dce3The Bulldog Tuesday, March 22, 2011

FP's Terence Corcoran: The nuclear blowout over AECL
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/01/19/
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[Oscar]

QUOTE: "While in The Hague, Rotterdam and Delft, Norris will focus on specific subjects; clean coal technologies, peaceful nuclear research, health research in neuroscience as well as biotechnology." (Emphasis added. Ed.)

PREMIER AND MINISTER NORRIS INVITING LABOUR, INVESTMENT FROM EUROPE TO SASKATCHEWAN

http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=4da43035-767c-456f-b7ed-43cc9e08e3a0

News Release - February 29, 2012

Premier Brad Wall departs today for London, U.K. where he will spend two days outlining the Saskatchewan Advantage to investors March 1-2. He will then join Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris in Dublin, Ireland on March 3 at a labour recruitment mission to help fill the ranks of the province's skilled workforce.

"In this time of economic turmoil and uncertainty European investors and businesses are looking for a safe, stable and secure financial climate, and Saskatchewan is a wise choice," Wall said. "Billions are already being invested in our province over the next decade, and we're inviting others to come and join in the opportunity and excitement."

Wall will meet with representatives of large multinationals based in the U.K. with interests in Saskatchewan (BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and AMEC) as well as with His Excellency Gordon Campbell, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Premier Wall will also deliver a keynote address to a luncheon hosted by the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce to promote Saskatchewan's growth and opportunity.

Minister Norris is leading a delegation of 27 Saskatchewan employers to the Working Abroad Expo in Dublin and Cork, which will feature a Saskatchewan pavilion that has more than 275 skilled jobs available immediately for Irish workers. Candidates who receive an offer of employment will work with immigration officers to apply to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP).

"There is a tremendous pool of qualified skilled workers in Ireland who are actively seeking opportunities abroad," Norris said. "The mission will connect the people with the Saskatchewan jobs they need."

On March 5 and 6, Norris will also lead a brief mission to The Netherlands for meetings with representatives from Holland's industrial, governmental and research communities. While in The Hague, Rotterdam and Delft, Norris will focus on specific subjects; clean coal technologies, peaceful nuclear research, health research in neuroscience as well as biotechnology.

Norris will also participate in the signing of two agreements involving the Regina-based Petroleum Technology Research Centre and its Dutch partners.

While in Europe, both Wall and Norris will focus on the high quality of life and growth-oriented economy in Saskatchewan.

"With record population growth and employment, an upgrade to AAA status from international financial firm Standard & Poor's, and billions in infrastructure and resource development, we have important things to tell the world," Wall said. -30-

For more information, contact:

Ian Hanna
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0864
Email: ian.hanna@gov.sk.ca

Bill Stovin
Advanced Education Employment and Immigration
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0926
Email: bill.stovin@gov.sk.ca

[Oscar]

Reactor research centre's agenda

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/opinion/
op-ed/Reactor+research+centre+agenda/6310602/story.html

By Mark Bigland-Pritchard, The StarPhoenix March 16, 2012

Bigland-Pritchard is an applied physicist, director of Low Energy Design Ltd. consultants, and deputy leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan.

EXCERPT: "It appears that the Wall government is prepared to do anything to satisfy its friends in the nuclear industry."

- - - - -

The provincial government recently re-announced its taxpayer-funded subsidy to the University of Saskatchewan's Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI). It's only fair that we should know what this centre will do with our money. Unfortunately, information is sparse. Medical isotopes were highlighted, but this is only part of the centre's planned program. Thankfully, unlike the case with its unsuccessful bid for a federal subsidy in 2009, it proposes to generate isotopes in a cyclotron, rather than the dirty expensive old method of fission in a reactor. It is gratifying to know that it is following a course that scientifically educated environmentalists like me advised in 2009.

If it helps Saskatchewan's hospitals to fight disease, it will be a good use of my tax dollars. It also appears that the centre proposes using the cyclotron as a neutron source for commercial materials testing. Again, a useful activity, though not a reason for taxpayer subsidy.

If the CCNI was only about particle accelerators, neutron beams and medical isotopes I would see no reason for suspicion. However, it is clear that today, as it was three years ago, the government's main agenda is power reactors, not medicine. The language of the CCNI business framework gives us some clues. In that document, the university refers to "valueadded nuclear technologies."

In nuclear-speak, this usually means "fourth generation reactors," i.e. plutoniumfuelled fast breeders, and the dangerous, costly and weapons-proliferation-prone reprocessing technology upon which they depend. Despite 60 years of development in seven countries, no commercially viable fast reactor has been developed, and several prototypes have been disabled by serious accidents.

As for reprocessing, it has long been an albatross around the neck of the British nuclear industry through repeated leaks into the Irish Sea, cost overruns and technical problems. Even when the technology works, it is still a loss-maker that requires subsidies.

Meanwhile, the government talks about the possibility of nuclear power plants "after 2020." Its media release refers to "small reactors," although Premier Brad Wall's definition appears to go up to 300MW , larger than all but two of SaskPower's existing power stations. Would this be Hitachi's proposed PRISM fast reactor design? Whatever the size, and whatever the design, there is no demonstrated demand, and no business case has been made.

In 2009, the Wall government initiated a consultation process, chaired by well-respected, impartial former public servant Dan Perrins, on the proposals of the Uranium Development Partnership - a panel of known nuclear proponents convened by the government.

The outcome of that consultation process was a resounding "no" to the government and the nuclear industry's plans.

The Perrins report showed: 88 per cent opposed the UDP's overall strategy; 98 per cent supported more development of "alternative" energy technologies; 93 per cent considered nuclear development a net cost; 84 per cent opposed nuclear power generation; 86 per cent opposed nuclear waste disposal and storage; 42 per cent opposed nuclear research, while a further 19 per cent specified support only for medical isotope research and only 32 per cent gave general support.

Meanwhile, 70 per cent opposed uranium upgrading (refineries, enrichment, etc.) and 70 per cent opposed expansion of uranium exploration and mining . . . . .

MORE:

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/opinion/
op-ed/Reactor+research+centre+agenda/6310602/story.html

[Oscar]

SASKATCHEWAN MOVES TO STRENGHTEN ACADEMIC TIES WITH INDIA

http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=d816b1d7-aed1-41e4-b2b3-83cc13f47661

News Release - April 13, 2012

Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dr. Braj Sinha on behalf of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute which formalizes an academic relationship between Saskatchewan and India.

The MOU supports a commitment made by Premier Wall in India in March 2011 to strengthen economic and academic relationships with India.

"India has become an increasingly important partner for Saskatchewan," Norris said. "Saskatchewan is India's largest trading partner in Canada, but this MOU will broaden the scope of our relationship to include education and innovation. This MOU will facilitate and foster even closer ties between our two jurisdictions and continue to support the growth of our knowledge economy."

"The Saskatchewan-Shastri MOU heralds a new era of Saskatchewan and India education collaboration," Dr. Sinha said. "This is the first provincial MOU to go forward in a tangible way and supports the agenda of the Canada-India Education Co-operation MOU announced by Prime Ministers Stephen Harper and Manmohan Singh recently."

AEEI will work with post-secondary partners in Saskatchewan to deliver on the objectives of the MOU that include:

Promoting Saskatchewan-India education co-operation and collaboration;
Raising Saskatchewan's education profile in India; Facilitating academic partnerships between post-secondary institutions in Canada and India; and Sharing information international education best practices in India.

"Over the past few decades, the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute has supported teaching, research and cultural partnerships between the University of Regina and a number of institutions in India - partnerships that will continue to grow with the signing of this important Memorandum of Understanding," University of Regina President and Vice-Chancellor Vianne Timmons said.

"As part of the Canadian Member Council of institutions, we have been privileged to receive and take part in numerous programs and activities delivered by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute," University of Saskatchewan President Peter MacKinnon said. "We're honoured to be involved with an organization that promotes bilateral education linkages in Canada and India."

The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute is a Canadian-based non-governmental organization dedicated to building and strengthening intellectual and cultural linkages through research, dialogue and exchange. The organization promotes understanding between the two countries through academic exchange. -30-

For more information, contact:

Richelle Bourgoin
Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration
Regina
Phone: 306-787-8153
Email: richelle.bourgoin@gov.sk.ca

- - - - -

QUOTE: " Representatives of University of Alberta, Ryerson University and Carleton University visited India in November 2011. A MOU between Carleton University and TERI and Symbiosis International University of Pune was signed for providing opportunities to combine expertise and real-world experience in the areas of technology management, alternative energy, economics, public policy and engineering."

- - - -

High Commission of India - Ottawa - India-Canada Bilateral Relations

http://www.hciottawa.ca/index.php/india ... -relations

January 2012

In Canada, India is represented by the High Commission of India in Ottawa and the two Consulates in Toronto and Vancouver.

In India, Canada is represented by the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi and the Consulates in Chandigarh, Chennai and Mumbai.

India established diplomatic relations with Canada in 1947. India and Canada have longstanding bilateral relationship based on shared democratic values, the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious nature of two societies and strong people-to-people contacts. In recent years, both countries have been working to enhance bilateral cooperation in a number of areas of mutual importance.

Canada is endowed with vast natural reserves in potash, uranium, coal, oil and gas, diamonds, forest products, etc. and offers good opportunities for investments or joint ventures for India. Canada with its advanced technological base can become India’s natural partner in agriculture, food processing, education, science and technology, innovation, environment, cleaner technologies, etc. India would welcome investment from Canada in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, mining, health, education, communication, food processing, information technology, etc. India would like Canada to make use of India’s skilled and trained manpower base and establish manufacturing units or enter into joint ventures in India. Indian and Canadian companies can also join hands in taking up joint projects in other countries.

Several high level visits including at PM levels, have been exchanged over the past three years. About 18 Ministerial level visits including that of Premiers from Canada took place in 2009-10.

MORE:

http://www.hciottawa.ca/index.php/india ... -relations

- - - - -

QUOTE: "The CCNI expects to issue a call for proposals later this spring. Local researchers can partner with outside industry, academics, and governments to submit project proposals, which will then be peer-reviewed and evaluated by an arms-length expert advisory committee of external reviewers against established criteria on alignment, feasibility, quality of partnerships, and the plan for achieving positive impacts in medicine, materials, energy, environmental or social domains."

- - - -

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR NUCLEAR INNOVATION MOVES AHEAD

http://prosperitysaskatchewan.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/
canadian-centre-for-nuclear-innovation-moves-ahead/

Posted by prosperitysaskatchewan February 21, 2012

Minister responsible for Innovation Rob Norris today signed a multi-year agreement for Innovation Saskatchewan to provide funding for the new $30 million Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI), a world-class research centre housed at the University of Saskatchewan to support nuclear research, development and innovation.

“The Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation is a key cornerstone of Saskatchewan’s innovation and nuclear agendas,” Norris said. “It will play a vital role in advancing our vision for a safe, responsible, value-added nuclear agenda that focuses on nuclear medicine, material science, safety and small reactor technology.”

“Building on the university’s renowned history in nuclear medicine and accelerator technology, the CCNI will help Saskatchewan build and maintain a community of expertise to engage the broader community in evidence-based conversations about nuclear issues and inform policies on nuclear technologies for the benefit of society and the economy,” CCNI Vice-Chair and U of S Vice-President Research Karen Chad said.

“The CCNI’s board of directors is a strong team of experienced academics, executives and managers who bring perspectives from universities, colleges, industry, and government agencies, including the University of Saskatchewan, Cameco and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, as examples,” CCNI Interim Director and Director of the National Research Council’s Canadian Beam Centre John Root said.

The CCNI expects to issue a call for proposals later this spring. Local researchers can partner with outside industry, academics, and governments to submit project proposals, which will then be peer-reviewed and evaluated by an arms-length expert advisory committee of external reviewers against established criteria on alignment, feasibility, quality of partnerships, and the plan for achieving positive impacts in medicine, materials, energy, environmental or social domains.

The CCNI was approved in December by the U of S board of governors as a Type C centre of the University of Saskatchewan. Type C centres are incorporated and legally distinct from the university, but report on their academic and research activities to a vice-president or dean, reflecting the university’s academic interest in the centre’s activities.

Created in 2009, Innovation Saskatchewan is the central agency of the Government of Saskatchewan with responsibility for co-ordinating Saskatchewan’s innovation priorities. Innovation Saskatchewan co-ordinates the strategic direction of the government’s research and development and science and technology expenditures; provides advice on science and technology policy; co-ordinates the establishment and maintenance of science, research and development infrastructure; and provides advice and recommendations on research, development, demonstration, and the commercialization of new technologies and innovative processes in Saskatchewan. -30-

For more information, contact:

Rita Flaman Jarrett Innovation Saskatoon
Phone: 306-933-5716 Email: rita.flamanjarrett@innovationsask.ca Cell: 306-270-7654

John Root University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon
Phone: 306-966-4784 Email: john.root@usask.ca