The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the federal government will finance half of the costs for modernizing Canada's homegrown Candu nuclear power reactor, while continuing to fund proposed power plants featuring American-designed reactors. The Globe's Matthew McClearn writes that the government announced a loan of up to $304-million to Atkinsrealis (formerly SNC-Lavalin) on Wednesday toward development of its proposed Monark reactor. It marks a major return to funding reactor development, an activity the government of then-prime-minister Stephen Harper extricated itself from in 2011 by selling the reactor division of Atomic Energy of Canada to SNC for $15-million. Atkinsrealis announced the Monark in November, 2023, billing it as the latest evolution of the Candu, originally developed in the 1950s. (There are 17 Candus operating domestically, and others abroad; plans for two new units in Romania were announced late last year.) Since then, it has lobbied the feds to help fund the Monark's design, which is to be completed by the end of 2026. The company launched a campaign in February, 2024, dubbed "Canadians for Candu," led by former prime minister Jean Chretien and former Ontario premier Mike Harris.