75-Minute Debate (12 May 2022)

From Hansard (12 May 2022)

 

Small Modular Reactor Technology in Saskatchewan

The Assembly was debating the following motion moved by Terry Jenson:

That this Assembly acknowledges and supports small modular reactors (SMRs) as a safe, reliable, zero-emissions energy source to complement renewable energy by providing stable, baseload, clean energy capable of powering Saskatchewan’s growing economy and population while creating new opportunities to export Canadian knowledge and expertise around the world.

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Mr. Jenson: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great day to be standing up today and talking about a project that’s going to be impacting our province for generations to come. That project, Mr. Speaker, is the future of electrical generation in our province, emissions-free baseload power supplied potentially by small modular reactors. My remarks today, Mr. Speaker, will focus on where we are today and what role the SMRs [small modular reactor] will potentially have down the road.

But before I go into that, it’s been a few weeks, but I never had the chance to thank the SaskPower crews that worked through some of the spring storms that we had in the southwest part of the province as well as in the southeast. And I’d also like to, you know, give a shout-out to all the SaskPower linemen and all the other staff that are out there that work hard during the spring and summer months when we get those thunderstorms that roll through and knock out power, and we have . . . You know, those crews are out quite often in the late evening and into the early morning when these storms run through to make sure that the lights stay on and we have power going to our houses, our farms, our businesses.

When we have those storms roll through and we have the power go out, it’s a really good reminder that all people really expect, you know, when they come home is to be able to flip on that light switch and the lights come on, and they walk in in the wintertime and their house is warm or maybe, you know, in the summertime, now that we’re moving into that season, that their house is nice and cool. So having a stable supply of power throughout the province is critical.

And things are changing, and they seem to be changing at a very, very quick pace, you know. Mr. Deputy Speaker, historically speaking, our province has been reliant on coal for the most part for baseload power. And that baseload power is also supplemented with some hydro, more recently natural gas, solar, biomass, and wind.

In 2021 SaskPower’s electrical generation from coal and natural gas was 76 per cent, with renewables making up the remainder. And that includes things like hydro coming from Gardiner dam, the E.B. Campbell dam at Tobin Lake, as well as wind, solar, and biomass.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, emissions expectations are changing, not only here in Canada but around the world. The federal government target of having net zero electrical generation nationally by 2035, you know, it’s causing a massive rethink of how we produce emissions-free baseload power to support our residents, our residential homes, commercial and industrial complexes, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Conventional coal and natural gas won’t be options as we move to 2030, as mandated by the federal government. But I think it’s very important to understand that wind, solar, and other renewables are not sources of baseload power. We have short winter days, Mr. Deputy Speaker. We have cold winter days. We have days where we don’t have sunlight. We have days where there’s no wind. We’ve all experienced in the wintertime where we can go 4, 5, 6 days without a breath of wind in the winter and it’s minus 35.

So how are we going to move forward with the development and potential implementation of SMR technology? Well you know, I’m glad you asked. In late 2019 our province, along with Ontario and New Brunswick, began working together to advance SMR technology in our nation with a memorandum of understanding. And the province of Alberta joined on to that MOU [memorandum of understanding] in April of 2021.

March 28th of this year, just a short five, six weeks ago, we took another step as a province toward the development of SMRs and the potential implementation of this technology. The strategic plan for the deployment of small modular reactors was signed by all four provinces. The provinces will work together on the development and deployment of SMR technologies in their respective jurisdictions with a focus on ensuring what’s being done is in the best interest of residents, customers, the environment, and of course to ensure SaskPower remains in a strong financial and operational position. The document outlines each province’s plan to move forward in the years ahead. Things like emissions, consumer demand and capacities, economic development opportunities, and potential research and development are all covered in this MOU.

Over the next few years, Mr. Deputy Speaker, there will be a lot to do in order to get to the point where the final decision is made to proceed with construction. There’s going to be extensive and ongoing Indigenous, stakeholder, customer, and public engagement consultations, site evaluation and selection that will determine the best location for an SMR in our province. Technology selection. There are a few different types of SMRs and each have their own, you know, unique characteristics in terms of operation and fuel supply. There’s going to be comprehensive assessment on the business case to support the development and deployment of SMRs in our province. There’s also environmental, social, economic, and of course Indigenous impact assessments to be done. All that leads to the preparation, submission, and approval for licences to prepare site construction and operation, ultimately the operation of SMRs.

But the development and deployment of SMRs is not a quick and easy process, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I can’t stress enough that SaskPower will continue to monitor the developments as Ontario Power Generation, or OPG as it’s known, develops and deploys the province’s first 300-megawatt SMR at its Darlington site, planned for 2028. Since Ontario already has a reactor operating, their development and construction timelines are a little bit shorter as things like appropriate site selection and regulatory licences are already in place at that Darlington site.

Under the strategic plan between the provinces, Saskatchewan will be next in line with an SMR with a final decision expected on whether or not to proceed to be made in 2030. There’s lots of factors that go into whether or not an SMR will be developed and deployed in our province. If the project checks all the regulatory and technical boxes, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and represents a strong business case for the people of Saskatchewan, construction will begin and an SMR could be put into operation by 2034.

You know, it should also be noted — and there have been some concerns in the past; it just goes with any time you talk about nuclear fuel — it should be noted that the used fuel from SMRs will be stored in Ontario. There’s existing facilities already there.

Management of used fuel from SMRs is incredibly important, and SaskPower is going to be working closely with the federal government’s radioactive waste policy framework, a not-forprofit organization established and funded by some of our country’s leading nuclear electricity producers. Those include OPG, New Brunswick Power, Hydro-Québec, and the Atomic Energy of Canada, or AECL [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.] as it’s known.

It’s important that a project of this magnitude . . . It’s a huge project that has so much importance to this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker. SMRs can provide clean energy to a province that already produces some of the most clean and sustainable agriculture and manufactured products in the world. But also just as important, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is the energy security SMRs provide to the residents of our province through the use of Saskatchewan uranium and the Canadian technologies as we work to decarbonize our electrical production.

There’s so much information I’d like to be able to go into, but my time is limited, so I’ll just share this. Growing up, I grew up just downstream from Gardiner dam and I spent many, many summers on Lake Diefenbaker. As a child, I remembered those five giant concrete turbine units at the north end of the dam. We always knew, whenever we took our boat from our cabin at Coteau Beach up the lake, those five large concrete penstocks would slowly appear on the horizon.

Now when you’re six, seven years old, they’re just these big concrete things at the end of the lake. We didn’t really pay much attention to what they actually did. We were just more worried about getting to that pavilion and running across the hot sand to go get some ice cream. That’s all we cared about, but we knew we were getting close when we saw those penstocks rise on the horizon. Then there’s the spillway and the generating station and all of these large, large pieces of infrastructure.

Living near this dam, which is one of the largest earth dams in the world, was pretty special. And knowing that it took almost nine years to build is amazing in itself, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And when you live that close to it, there’s families of people who worked on that project, and there’s likely still some around today that worked on that project. And that’s what’s really, really cool.

And you take the community of Outlook, for instance. Sure, it existed in 1908 when the first settlers came and set up shop, but it was really the construction of that dam that brought workers in from across the prairies and really from all over the country. And a lot of those people never left. They made Outlook and the area around the dam their home. The economic impact of that project was felt back then, and it’s still felt today.

And it truly was a project that captured a vision for the future. Aside from the power that is generated at Coteau Creek generation station, the spinoff benefits to the people of Saskatchewan over the last 55 years economically and socially are many. And the jobs it created and still creates to this very day are well-documented.

While a small modular reactor won’t have the same, you know, physical footprint as a hydroelectric project the size and scope of Gardiner dam, the end result will be much the same. SMRs have the potential to be part of our electrical generating ecosystem, providing emission-free baseload power to customers across the province.

But in addition to generating clean, sustainable baseload power, I’m proud to say that SMRs fit nicely into our government’s plan for growth as we head to 2030. The development and deployment of SMRs will play a role in helping our province deliver on our climate change strategy, Prairie Resilience. Mr. Deputy Speaker, if small modular reactors move ahead and are put into operation, it will support our government’s goals of reaching a population of 1.4 million people by 2030, increasing the annual sales of Saskatchewan-mined uranium to $2 billion annually, support the creation of 100,000 new jobs, and grow our private capital investment to $16 billion annually. More importantly, the development of this technology will triple the growth in our technology sector and grow Indigenous participation in our province’s natural resource sector.

We are adapting, and we’re doing things with the goal of enhancing already sustainable and environmentally responsible way of producing goods and commodities for domestic consumption and export purposes to other countries around the world. Our ability to produce high-quality and environmentally sustainable products is in large part to ongoing investments and support in our technology sector.

Mr. Speaker, in the early 1950s our province began work on a project to drought-proof the central part of our province, generating additional intermittent electrical capacity by building a dam, building something so huge in size and scope that our province hadn’t ever seen the likes of before. The people that worked on that project had vision and foresight. And I’m proud to say, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that our government is now doing the same, looking to the future with a vision for clean, emissionfree, baseload electrical generation. And SMRs have the capacity that will be needed to supply power to this province for generations to come.

So with that, I’m going to be moving the following motion that reads:

That this Assembly acknowledges and supports small modular reactors (SMRs) as a safe, reliable, zero-emissions energy source to complement renewable energy by providing stable, baseload, clean energy capable of powering Saskatchewan’s growing economy and population while creating new opportunities to export Canadian knowledge and expertise around the world.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for your time. I appreciate the opportunity to provide remarks in relation to this motion. And the member is chirping across the way. Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

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