Canada Embraces Nuclear Energy Expansion to Lower Carbon Emissions
OTTAWA—In most developed nations, enthusiasm for expanding nuclear power is limited or nonexistent. One exception: Canada. It is counting on nuclear power to be part of its clean-energy mix, which will play a prominent role in sharply reducing carbon emissions. On a per-capita basis, Canada’s carbon emissions are in line with the U.S. and greater than in Russia, China and India. “We don’t see a path where we reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 without nuclear,” said Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s natural-resources minister. “It is proven, it is tested and it is safe. We are good at it.”
Canada ranks sixth among countries in terms of nuclear-power generation, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Energy Institute. Electricity produced from 19 nuclear reactors accounts for 15% of the country’s energy supply. In Ontario, an economic engine that is bigger in area than the state of Texas, nuclear power is the top source of electricity, at 60%.
Late last year Canada’s federal government set out a policy road map to encourage the deployment of what are known as small modular reactors, or SMRs. They are a new class of reactors that are built in factories and come in a range of sizes. They can produce enough energy for a town as small as 5,000 in population or a city as big as 300,000. Unlike legacy reactors, which are built on site and big enough to power a city of a million or more, these smaller versions can be transported and dropped into locales where they are either hooked up to the electricity grid to serve a large region, or meet the needs of industrial areas or small towns. Proponents add that SMRs are more efficient in producing electricity compared with legacy reactors, and that their costs make them competitive with fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal.
Canadian officials regard small modular reactors as a way to provide electricity to remote, northern indigenous communities, some of which are fueled by diesel. Two western oil-rich provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, count on fossil fuels to generate the bulk of their electricity, and neither has nuclear reactors. Both provinces, though, have signaled to the Canadian government their interest in deploying small modular reactors as part of an economic strategy and an effort to shift to cleaner forms of power.
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Some say that small modular reactors and other new designs look good on paper but haven’t met real-world tests yet. “These are PowerPoint reactors,” said Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based nuclear-energy consultant who is often critical of the industry. “These are not existing full-scale designs. It’s very far from being detailed engineering.” Even some supporters of nuclear power say small reactors using new designs are likely to cost more per megawatt than established designs that pack large capacity into a single plant.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/canada-embraces-nuclear-energy-expansion-to-lower-carbon-emissions-11614767403 (subscription)
