Planning for Nuclear Power

Hi Lori, thanks for the question.

Canada has a long history of safely and effectively storing high level radioactive waste. The licensing process for any nuclear activity in Canada – from medicine to research to power generation -- must include a plan for waste management over that activity’s full operational lifecycle.

In Canada, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is responsible for implementing Canada’s plan for the safe, long-term management of spent nuclear fuel and waste. Spent fuel will need to be stored in short-term storage at the facility while it cools enough to be transported to the long-term storage facility as developed by the NWMO.

To learn more, visit Managing Nuclear Waste

One of the important parts of our planning work is to determine how water will be used in the cooling process of a potential SMR facility. 

There are many options related to the various cooling processes, with some resulting in more consumption and some less. Understanding these options is a key part of the planning work and ultimately, the goal is to have the smallest impact to the surrounding ecosystem while maintaining a cooling process that is efficient and reliable. 

 A suitable water supply is needed to cool the power production process, outside of any closed loop nuclear process. It is important to understand that the cooling water is kept separate from the nuclear operations of the facility.

SaskPower has extensive experience in operating thermal generation plants (through coal- and natural gas-fired power stations), and there are reasonable comparisons that can be made when extended to a nuclear facility, as a nuclear power plant operates in a similar way, using steam to spin a turbine. 

In theory, an underground well could supply cooling water if it was a large enough source, but there are several reasons why using surface water is the typical method (availability and temperature of the water are the primary ones).

At most existing thermal plants, reservoir water is removed, ran through the cooling process (separate from the nuclear reaction process) and then returned to the reservoir at a warmer temperature. The impact of the warmer water being returned to the reservoir is something that is monitored and measured. 

Determining a cooling process is a very important element to the detailed site analysis as we look to choose a site next year. We are working with the Water Security Agency who allocates water for things like power generation and irrigation projects.

Yes, we have established several partnerships with organizations that have significant expertise and experience in the nuclear industry, including Calian Advanced Technologies, Ontario Power Generation, and GE Vernova Hitachi. We recently joined the CANDU Owners Group, although are not currently planning to build CANDU reactors, this will allow us to collaborate with other Canadian nuclear utilities and international nuclear organizations to leverage their technical, regulatory, and research expertise to support our small modular reactor project here in Saskatchewan. In the future, we will be engaging with engineering and construction firms that are experienced with new nuclear projects.

For SaskPower to be successful in our transition to net-zero, ongoing collaboration with Indigenous communities, industry, utilities, other provinces, and levels of government will be essential. 

Thank you for the question and for sharing your perspective. 

Canada’s nuclear industry has an impeccable safety track record. It’s built on more than 70 years of innovation with safety and environmental protection at its core. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulates all stages of the life of a nuclear power plant in Canada from environmental assessment required before plant construction, to decommissioning of a facility once operations are ended.

In addition, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada requires a thorough review of all potential impacts of any major development project.

These are lengthy processes and extensive Indigenous and stakeholder engagement is required.  We work closely with the regulators and are always looking for ways to streamline regulatory approvals, without compromising on safety or public interest.

We anticipate the development, review and approval of the required licences and the approval of a federal impact assessment will take approximately five years once a site is selected. SaskPower can’t make its decision whether to construct an SMR until this work is complete. So, we need to conduct the necessary work now in order to maintain SMRs as a potential generation option in the mid 2030s.

Thanks for your question! 

In Canada, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is responsible for implementing Canada’s plan for the safe, long-term management of spent nuclear fuel and waste.

Spent fuel will need to be stored in short-term, above-ground storage at the facility while it cools enough to be transported to the NWMO’s long-term storage facility.

In 2010, the NWMO began a lengthy and significant regulatory process to gain approval for their Deep Geological Repository project, which will be located in Ontario. There are no plans to expand this project beyond the current scope at this time. You can learn more about their plan by visiting www.nwmo.ca

We’ve narrowed our search for a site down to two near the City of Estevan to potentially host the province’s first small modular reactor facility. 

The two sites at Boundary Dam and Rafferty Reservoir are undergoing detailed investigation, lead to final site selection in 2025.

In addition to the technical suitability of the sites, the benefits of this region include close proximity to the City of Estevan to access existing services, a skilled workforce, accommodations, emergency services as well as infrastructure, roads and transmission. 

Visit saskpower.com/nuclear to learn more about the SMR project and the potential facility locations. 

Thanks for the comment and feedback.  As we consider adding nuclear power to our future supply mix to power the province, ensuring economic opportunities for our province and Saskatchewan people is a priority. The fuel supply chain has been identified as an area of particular interest, given our rich uranium resources in the province. 

Canada currently has no uranium enrichment facilities. Historically, nuclear reactors in Canada have all been able to utilize natural uranium as a fuel source, so there’s never been a need to enrich uranium in Canada.  If we start to depend more on uranium enrichment for our energy needs, it may become more important to our national energy security.

Uranium enrichment is strategically sensitive and expensive to construct. Since there hasn’t been a need in Canada for at-home uranium enrichment capacity given existing capacity in the global industry, the initial business case to establish this functionality may be challenging. In addition, from a non-proliferation standpoint, uranium enrichment is a sensitive technology which requires tight international control. To learn more, visit Uranium Enrichment | Enrichment of uranium - World Nuclear Association (world-nuclear.org)

Thank you for inquiring. SaskPower completed an extensive SMR technology assessment that considered eight key criteria, including operational safety and environmental stewardship, technology readiness, cost of electricity, waste, fuel supply chain, economic benefit to the province, mode of operation and services beyond energy production as well as physical plant parameters. 

One of the designs we looked at closely in 2021, as part of a final technology selection, was the Terrestrial Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR).  These advanced reactor designs have innovative and novel safety features and unique ability to operate well in some heavy industrial applications where higher temperature steam is needed.  While molten salt reactor safety features were demonstrated during the 1960’s and 1970’s in research reactors in the United States, this reactor type has never operated since, and never commercially. The various molten salt reactor designs require more research and development to meet modern requirements, which adds costs, risks, and time to deployment.  

There were no thorium reactors considered as part of the technology evaluation as no SMR vendors proposed such a design that could meet SaskPower’s cost and timeline requirements. There is no thorium based SMR commercially available today, especially for a greenfield jurisdiction. There is some active thorium research in Canada today, and it is focused around utilizing thorium and uranium blended fuels in the existing large CANDU reactors, which are not a consideration for SaskPower and our provincial grid.  

We also took into consideration Ontario Power Generation’s selection of the GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 for deployment in Ontario. As a result, we concluded that deployment of the same GE-Hitachi SMR design in Saskatchewan presents a lower overall deployment risk with the strong likelihood of a materially lower cost of power.

The BWRX-300 is the tenth generation BWR from GE-Hitachi and is an enhanced and scaled down version of GE-Hitachi’s ESBWR technology, which has been in existence since 1955. This water-cooled reactor design utilizes passive safety systems that leverage the design and lessons learned over the past several decades. Having a light-water reactor deployed in Ontario and then in Saskatchewan is the most efficient way to enable success on the pan-Canadian and fleet-based approach to SMR deployment. 

Thank you for the question. There is no limit to the distance electricity can be transferred from a generation source to an end user.  That being said, there is a loss of energy when electricity is transmitted far distances.  The amount of line loss depends on how the voltage and current levels are managed.  SaskPower tries to keep generation sources close to major load centres to avoid transmitting large amounts of energy great distances.  

Thank you for your questions. We’ve separated them and included the answer for each for easy reference. 

How can you justify the billions SMR’s cost for a population just over 1 million?

SaskPower is committed to achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions power system by 2050 or earlier. Our research shows that nuclear power from SMRs has strong potential to provide reliable, emissions-free and cost-effective.

We continue to evaluate a range of low- and non-emitting generation options to determine what role they will play in helping us reach that goal. 

This will include expanding options that are already available to us, such as wind, solar and natural gas while also pursuing emerging, non-emitting baseload power generation options, such as nuclear power from small modular reactors.

Based on early estimates, the cost of electricity from the GE-Hitachi small modular reactor (SMR) could be competitive with alternative base load, zero- emissions generation options available in the early to mid 2030s. Based on the completion of the same SMR design by Ontario Power Generation by the end of 2028, SaskPower will have highly reliable cost estimates by the time a final investment decision is made in 2029 to build an SMR in Saskatchewan.

One could assume Moe is going ahead without a clear mandate by Sask residents. Why?

As part of our future supply planning, we asked about specific supply options in our Stage 2 survey. You can find the full results of that survey in our Stage 2 What We Heard report here, but we’ve also included the ‘Support for Generation Options’ for nuclear here for easy reference:

• 39.4% strongly support
• 25.8% somewhat support
• 10.7% somewhat oppose
• 14.8% strongly oppose
• 9.4% don’t know 

These numbers largely align with other publicly available research, such as Environics Research’s 2023 ‘Public Attitudes to Nuclear Power’ research which can be found here.

The water requirements given the droughts we are experiencing could be better used in crop production not to become contaminated – what plans are being made to address droughts and the high water volumes required? 

Water availability is a key consideration for a the SMR project. Surface water is used for cooling the steam cycle, which is the same principle that most coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants operate under. Depending on the cooling technology and characteristics of the waterbody, water consumption of a thermal power plant can be kept quite low. We work closely with the Water Security Agency, who allocates water for things like power generation and irrigation projects.  We’re also doing a lot of evaluation of the technology requirements, cooling options, and waterbodies, so that potential impacts of the SMR facility can be well understood.

It is important to note that the cooling water is kept separate from the nuclear operations of the facility; therefore, when the water is returned to the water body it is not contaminated.

Long term storage of contaminated materials and decommissioning costs are astronomical – what plans are in place to manage the excessive costs and where are you planning on storing materials at the end? 

Before receiving a licence to construct and a license to operate a nuclear power facility our lifecycle regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), requires that plans for waste management and decommissioning are well developed and funded. Producing these types of plans prior to licencing is unique to the nuclear industry. Through the planning phase of the SMR development project we’re working towards developing these plans. If you’re interested in learning more about how waste is regulated, please visit the CNSC’s website.

Canada’s plan for nuclear waste management is administered by the NWMO, who is tasked with developing a repository for long-term storage of all spent nuclear fuel from Canadian reactors. Spent fuel will need to be stored in the short-term, at the site of the facility. If you’re interested in learning more, please visit the NWMO’s website.

Ensuring our SMR project is economically viable is very important to us. Based on the completion of the same SMR design by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), SaskPower will work with OPG to better understand potential costs to inform our final investment decision in 2029 to build an SMR in Saskatchewan. The costs associated with managing the waste products from a nuclear power plant can be affordable because we get a lot of energy from very small amounts of fuel.

How many shares do the SaskPower Management & Moe have in Cameco and is this influencing decision making? Transparency is a necessity – that’s lacking in our Crowns – as the residents of Sask own the Crowns not SP

At SaskPower has a comprehensive Code of Conduct Policy that outlines that no confidential information or personal information shall be used by SaskPower personnel to derive any benefit for themselves, their family members, personal acquaintances or business associates. We take this very seriously and have several internal controls in place to ensure personnel adhere to this policy.

Individuals elected to the provincial legislature and members of Cabinet must adhere to the Members’ Conflict of Interest Act to ensure that Members do not use their elected office to further their private interest. To learn more about this Act, visit www.saskcoic.ca. 

Thank you for reaching out. Local and provincial economic development and Indigenous participation will be a top priority for this project, and we’ll be looking at ways to help build new supply chains in Saskatchewan. Exploring these opportunities will be an important theme of conversation through our Indigenous and public engagement and in our engagement with the Government of Saskatchewan. We expect to have details regarding specific opportunities associated with the BWRX-300 SMR project in the near future and then we’ll start engaging specifically with suppliers like you.