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§  This topic arose from the DND mandate regarding the defence of Canada..  Security of energy supply and protection against interdiction clearly are relevant, both directly and indirectly, to the primary mandate.
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§  My own interest in the topic goes back many years, due to my interest in nuclear energy and the consequent need to compare this energy option with others in use and proposed.
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§  Recent events have “stirred the pot” – i.e. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  A more fundamental concern is that North America is in danger of falling hostage to foreign suppliers of natural gas and oil.  North American natural gas is in very short supply today, with little prospect of future improvement without massive imports.  Though Canada appears capable of meeting domestic oil demand for many years, due to NAFTA agreement the market is open, and continental demand already exceeds supply by a large margin.  The high bid for Canadian crude will not necessarily be for product to serve the Canadian market.
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§  Will present a brief summary of the situation as I see it today.  Please argue the facts with me – this study has so far been akin to “picking fly specks out of black pepper”.  It is very difficult to determine which person is telling the situation as it really is, and which other person is pitching his or her self-interest.
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§  Two recent meeting reports give summaries of background material.  Only one of these can be reported here, but I found some close parallels in a public document, which is available for distribution.
Assuming a gap of 90 million barrels of oil per day (roughly the same as the TOTAL world demand today) to produce the same amount of energy we would need more than 6,000 nuclear units, each producing 1000 Mwe.
As Matthew R. Simmons says, “We are In a Deep Hole”
This undertaking is massive -- similar in scale to buildup of the world systems for oil and gas, from exploration to customer delivery.  It can be done, but only with time and concentrated effort.  IF IT IS NOT DONE, THEN SOCIETIES WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF SEVERE ENERGY SHORTAGES.
The worldwide nuclear community is actively working on ways and means to make this choice a realistic option for governments.