Last week, industry leaders, government officials and regulators from across the continent gathered in Edmonton for the inaugural Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Forum.
SMRs are a new design of nuclear, electricity-generating reactors that are smaller and more standardized than traditional nuclear reactors. Like traditional reactors, SMRs have approximately zero carbon emissions.
The conference focused on the role SMRs are expected to play in supporting Alberta’s transition to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as required by federal law. At present, Alberta does not use nuclear power; New Brunswick and Ontario are the only provinces that do.
“We have an opportunity, folks, here in Alberta,” Brian Jean, the province’s minister of energy and minerals, told a packed conference room. “And if we look at the opportunities that SMRs have, we have an environment where people and businesses are becoming much more accepting of this potential.”
Stakeholders from across Canada and the United States discussed the opportunities and challenges SMRs present, including Alberta’s need to develop infrastructure and policy to facilitate adoption of the technology.
“[W]e would like to make sure … Alberta would be seen as a leader and be one of the best places to build [SMR] infrastructure,” said Nate Glubish, the province’s minister of technology and innovation.
Glubish said the province is working to establish “clear rules, clear boundaries to say: ‘As long as you’re within these goalposts, the answer is probably going to be yes.’”
Nuclear frontier
It is early days for SMRs globally. There are 98 SMR designs in various stages of development worldwide, according to the RBC Climate Action Institute. The only operational plants are in China and Russia.
SMRs typically produce between 50 and 300 megawatts of electricity. By comparison, the four traditional CANDU units at the Darlington Station north of Toronto together have a capacity of about 3,500 megawatts.
SMRs can be constructed in modular units, allowing for easier installation in diverse locations, including remote or off-grid areas. One of the potential applications for SMRs discussed at the forum was installing them near remote mining or oil and gas facilities.
“We’re looking at opportunities to provide [SMR technology] to the oil sectors through a number of different grants and actions,” said Jean, referencing the government’s $7-million program to explore the use of SMRs in oil sands operations.
“For traditional industries, [nuclear energy] is going to be important for delivering reliable electricity for our citizens, for ordinary rate payers. And it’s going to be important for the birth of new industries like AI, and specifically AI data centre computational infrastructure,” said Glubish.
South of the border, technology companies have been busy securing nuclear energy deals to meet their growing energy demands and climate targets.
In September, Microsoft and Constellation Energy announced a 20-year power purchase agreement that will restore the Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor to service.
On Monday, Google announced it had signed the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from SMRs that will be developed by California-based nuclear technology firm Kairos Power. The first reactor is expected to be online by 2030.
Amazon, likewise, announced on Wednesday its investment in the construction of SMRs.
“Nuclear is a safe source of carbon-free energy that can help power our operations and meet the growing demands of our customers, while helping us progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040,” Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, said in an online statement.
Also on Wednesday, the United States Department of Energy opened applications for up to $900 million in funding to support the domestic deployment of new SMR technologies.
Zooming out
Alberta will need to invest heavily in new energy infrastructure, including reactor sites, waste management systems and transmission networks to connect SMR-produced power to the grid. This will require decades — not months or years — of strategic foresight, says Adam Sweet, director for Western Canada at Clean Prosperity, a non-profit that advocates for practical climate policy
“When it comes to industrial planning, 2030 — five years from now — is two weeks ago,” he said. “2035 is today.”
“These things take a long time, from siting, to regulatory, planning, construction, operationalization,” he said. “Today’s conversations have to be, at the very least, about where we want to be in 2035 — and I’d suggest more where we want to be in 2040 and 2045.”
Ontario — which generated 53 per cent of its electricity from large-scale nuclear reactors last year — is the furthest along in SMR development in Canada. The country’s first SMR is under development at the Darlington Station and expected to be operational by 2029.
At the forum, Ontario Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce said Canadians stand to benefit from an international increase in energy demand as Canada expands its nuclear capacity.
“[Y]ou will see nuclear play a critical role as we commit to tens of thousands of new megawatts on the grid — yes, for the purpose of having clean, affordable, reliable power for the people of Ontario, but also because our premier sees an export opportunity,” Lecce said.
Lecce suggested that states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and the Virginias, which currently have electricity grids that remain heavily dependent on coal, might turn to Ontario in their efforts to “move away from coal.”
“[T]he mission, in short, is to export this [nuclear] capability to the world — it is to advance an economic program for growing the economy and reducing emissions, and we’re able to create and leverage Canadian tech and capital and people,” Lecce said.
