A Canadian Federal Court judge has refused a request from AECL to keep secret a series of Chinese government documents related to that country’s purchase of Candu reactors.
Judge Pelletier rejected AECL’s request, ruling that public interest exceeded the need for commercial confidentiality. AECL appealed, saying it cannot give a full picture of the sale of two reactors without the documents. The documents belong to China, which approved their use only if they remain confidential.
AECL wants to use the material in a court case brought by Sierra Club of Canada, which challenged the government’s decision not to conduct a full-scale environmental assessment of the Candu sale. Sierra Club claims federal regulations were improperly changed to absolve the government of any obligation to conduct environmental reviews on overseas projects.