Canada plans to install dozens of small modular nuclear reactors

• 7 years ago (2017-04-27)
• David Flin

North America 1004 Nuclear 643

---

Nicolle Butcher, Vice President of Strategy and Acquisitions for Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has said that OPG plans to fill a predicted supply gap in the 2030s with new nuclear capacity, and the utility is collaborating with Saskatchewan on the potential for a Pan-Canadian fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs).

OPG has replaced coal-fired generation with renewable energy, backstopped by gas-fired capacity and life extensions of 6.6 GW of large-scale nuclear capacity. OPG plans to close its 3.1 GW Pickering plant in 2024, and new carbon-free power capacity will be needed to ensure Ontario meets its objective of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 37 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030, and by 80 per cent by 2050.

OPG forecasts a gap in its power generation portfolio in the 2030s, and it intends to fill this gas with nuclear power, Butcher told the International SMR and Advanced Reactor Summit 2017.

A number of advanced nuclear reactor developers are targeting the Canadian markets, where the regulatory framework is considered more supportive for licensing new designs than in the USA, and where numerous remote industrial facilities represent captive electricity consumers. Ontario and New Brunswick are the only Canadian provinces to operate large-scale nuclear power plants, but several Canadian provinces are seen as potential markets for SMRs. Saskatchewan is seen as particularly promising as a potential market for SMR deployment. OPG and Saskatchewan’s main power utility Saskpower are said to be “examining the potential to have the same reactor design and whether it fits into the system.” Butcher said: “We would prefer not to have a unique reactor in our province as a single unit. We would like to have a fleet across the country.”

Terrestrial Energy of Canada has a design for a 190 MWe small modular Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) design that Butcher described as ideal.