This is what nuclear power could look like on the Prairies | 24CA News

The Prairies Climate Change Project is a joint initiative between CBC Edmonton and CBC Saskatchewan that focuses on climate and our altering local weather. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga brings her professional voice to the dialog to assist clarify climate phenomena and local weather change and the way they influence on a regular basis life.

There are a number of choices in vitality for Canada — hydro, wind, photo voltaic, biomass, pure gasoline, geothermal … the listing goes on.

As we work to decarbonize our electrical energy sources, there’s rising curiosity in nuclear energy.

Nuclear energy has an extended historical past in Canada, with the primary plant, the Nuclear Power Demonstration Reactor in Rolphton, Ont., logging on within the early Sixties.

Today, bigger nuclear producing stations in Ontario and New Brunswick provide about 15 per cent of Canada’s electrical energy.

But what in regards to the Prairies? There isn’t any nuclear energy in Alberta and Saskatchewan as of at this time. Alberta at the moment produces almost 90 per cent of its electrical energy from pure gasoline and coal; in Saskatchewan, fossil fuels present about 80 per cent of electrical energy.

But because the nation appears to be like to part out fossil gas use, what might the longer term appear like?

Nuclear in Canada

While New Brunswick is house to 1 nuclear producing station, most of Canada’s nuclear energy lies in Ontario, which has three producing stations — Pickering, Darlington and Bruce.

Canada’s nuclear energy crops use nuclear fission. Atoms from a uranium gas are break up aside, releasing vitality within the type of warmth and radiation. The warmth is used to create steam from water. The steam then spins a turbine, creating electrical energy.

Spent gas — radioactive waste — have to be saved securely for many years and even centuries. 

While a brand new giant nuclear plant has not been in-built Canada for the reason that Darlington plant got here on-line within the early ’90s, there’s growth on the way in which for small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs.

SMRs include some adjustments from the bigger crops, mentioned Gary Rose, vice-president of recent nuclear development at Ontario Power Generation, which operates the Pickering and Darlington amenities.

“They’re smaller, and because they’re smaller they can be more modular and built in factories and have a much more predictable cost and schedule to deploy,” Rose mentioned.

Ontario Power Generation is main the nation in SMR growth. A small reactor beneath building at Darlington is predicted to be working by 2029.

The SMR will present 300 megawatts of electrical energy, which may very well be sufficient to energy round 300,000 houses. The plant would run for 60 to 80 years.

“I would say we are leading the world in deploying this technology, and certainly many other countries and provinces are following us,” Rose mentioned.

Nuclear on the Prairies

Alberta and Saskatchewan are not any stranger to nuclear talks. Both provinces have signed memorandums of understanding with New Brunswick and Ontario — the intention is to share data within the push towards nuclear energy.

“Alberta is a leader in technology and innovation, and Small Modular Reactors have the potential to help support our responsible energy production while reducing emissions,” mentioned Alberta’s Ministry of Energy in a press release.

In April, Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute to discover the viability of deploying SMR know-how within the province.

Saskatchewan is a step forward of Alberta, with plans for a similar sort of SMR that’s being deployed in Ontario. 

“We’ll be in a position to make a decision on potentially our first SMR investment in 2029,” mentioned Kent Campbell, president and CEO of the Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan.

Campbell mentioned two potential websites have been recognized within the Elbow and Estevan areas of the province, with a closing choice anticipated in late 2023 or early 2024.

“If you look at our power production system right now, we’re still fairly heavily reliant on fossil fuels,” he mentioned. “As we move to a scenario of net-zero electricity production, we’re going to need to look to other sources.”

Along with developments in photo voltaic and wind energy, nuclear energy is an excellent possibility, Campbell mentioned.

“We are very, I think, optimistic that it will be part of our power generation future as we move forward into the 2030s and beyond.”

Safety and waste

Any discuss creating nuclear energy sparks questions on security and environmental impacts, and accidents like these at Three Mile Island, Chornobyl and Fukushima.

So what in regards to the dangers in Canada?

Nuclear security in Canada is monitored and controlled by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

“Canada has been in the nuclear power business since the 1960s, one of the first countries in the world to produce nuclear power, and we do have an exemplary safety record,” CNSC president Rumina Velshi advised CBC in an interview.

Velshi mentioned that for present crops, challenges lie with making certain amenities proceed to satisfy new requirements and security codes. The CNSC works with facility operators to make sure they’re following worldwide requirements.

“We do an assessment of each nuclear facility, not only on a regular basis, but then each year we produce a report card on how well those facilities are doing,” Velshi mentioned.

“When serious accidents happen, like when the Fukushima accident happened in 2011, for instance, it’s our job to understand what are the learnings for us.”

And in terms of new builds, Velshi mentioned the know-how itself has improved security. 

She mentioned SMRs incorporate passive security methods, which implies that if issues go unsuitable, the reactor shuts down.

Velshi mentioned one good thing about nuclear energy is the small, containable quantities of spent gas. 

“We know exactly how much waste there is and where it is. There are very, very stringent requirements around inventory and we actually have to report.”

Management of radioactive waste is deliberate for nuclear builds from the onset. Velshi mentioned that as a part of the licensing process, the plant’s operators are required to show that they’ve a plan and the funds for the secure disposal of waste.

“They have to set aside a certain amount of funds which we review every five years … so that there isn’t this abandoned waste with no one responsible because that funding is there.”

Though Canada does not have a everlasting waste resolution, Velshi mentioned work is being completed to alter that by way of a deep geological repository.

“Think about something underground, way down, a couple of kilometres down, and you store the waste there — and that’s the path that Canada is on,” she mentioned.

Velshi mentioned the CNSC is hoping a web site with a keen host group might be chosen by the tip of 2024, in order that the licensing course of can begin for constructing a deep geological repository.

Viability with local weather change

Much of the drive for nuclear comes from the necessity for dependable, zero- or low-emission vitality sources.

Gary Rose, with Ontario Power Generation, mentioned nuclear energy comes with that stage of stability. 

“In order to advance your renewables, wind, solar, etc., you need baseload energy [for] when you don’t have sun or don’t have wind,” he mentioned. 

“If it’s not nuclear or hydro, it’s [natural] gas, generally, and you don’t achieve the carbon reduction that we’re looking for.”

“I’m beginning to see [nuclear] as a kind of a battery for solar,” mentioned Esam Hussein, a former dean of engineering and utilized science on the University of Regina.

“If you have nuclear, you can afford to rely on those intermittent sources of power.”

Hussein acknowledges that nuclear energy is a dearer possibility, with greater capital prices, and that it does include dangers.

“There is a price for everything we do … solar has its own challenges and advantages, disadvantages. Wind, hydro — we all know the problems,” he mentioned.

“Take the risk of climate change that can wipe out humanity, or take a calculated, very well-known risk that I believe we can handle.”

Not all satisfied

The dialog round nuclear energy is difficult, and whereas many consider it’s the reply for a net-zero emission future, others are usually not satisfied. 

“Nuclear is not only not the answer, I think nuclear is actually a negative for climate mitigation,” mentioned M.V. Ramana, a professor within the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs on the University of British Columbia.

“Nuclear energy is a very expensive way to generate electricity,” he mentioned, noting that  nuclear prices have elevated over time, as security laws and licensing develop into dearer.

New nuclear builds all over the world have been tormented by delays and missed budgets, Ramana mentioned.

According to Ramana, Russia started constructing two SMRs in 2007 that had been meant to be accomplished in three years. Delays meant they did not get related to the grid till 2020.

And when it comes to price, Ramana mentioned that whereas SMRs are extra inexpensive on paper than giant crops, they lose out on economies of scale.

“When you build a plant that is generating, let’s say, five times as much electricity, the utility will get five times as much revenue out of it, but its costs will not be five times as much.

“When you go small you lose out on economies of scale and so the per unit price will truly go up for a smaller reactor.”

While Ramana discounts nuclear power as a solution to the effects of climate change, he does argue for carbon emissions to be reduced as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible cost.

“[Nuclear is] a really costly supply of energy, it takes a very long time to construct. So any greenback that you just’re spending on nuclear energy is a greenback that is not being spent on one thing else.”

He said expansion of renewable energy sources, along with further research into storage solutions, is the best path forward.

“We do not know something about what sort of storage applied sciences might be accessible [in the future] and the way a lot they are going to price,” he said. 

“How can we cope with local weather change? There isn’t any simple reply proper there. And the quick reply is we’ve to alter all the things we’re doing.”

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a 24CA News initiative entitled “Our Changing Planet” to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment web page.