A smiling Brian Jean, Alberta’s energy minister, posted photos on social media yesterday of his visit last week “to check out the future home of Canada’s first grid-scale small modular reactor.”
Mr. Jean didn’t say what day last week he visited the site of the proposed electricity-generating nuclear reactor 70 miles east of Toronto on the grounds of Ontario Power Generation Inc.’s massive 3,500-megawatt Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.
Surely it wasn’t on Thursday when Utilities Minister and Deputy Minister Nathan Neudorf was sending out a press release announcing a seven-month freeze on any approvals of projects to generate electricity from renewable resources like wind and sunshine!
Come to think of it, though, there don’t seem to have been any news stories quoting Mr. Jean responding to questions about Mr. Neudorf’s surprise announcement, which sent Alberta’s booming renewables industry into a tizzy, raising fears the freeze may drive billions in investments in renewables away from the province. Mr. Neudorf and Premier Danielle Smith took the heat. This seems peculiar in hindsight.
Mr. Jean’s photos on the Twitter/X/Whatever platform show him standing in front of a large sign proclaiming the site to be the “future home” of what would be a nuclear megaproject in its own right, notwithstanding the word small in its tendentious branding, poring over a piece of paper with a couple of OPG employees and Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith, and holding up what appears to be a model of nuclear reactor control rods.
“Thank you to @opg for the tour, & your hard work and innovation in this field,” Mr. Jean tweeted uninformatively. “I can’t wait to tour the site when it is up and running!”
That will be quite a while. An OPG news release when ground was broken for the 300-megawatt project in December last year indicated that all that had actually happened was signing of a contract with an Ontario company to do site preparation work.
The nuclear plant isn’t scheduled to go into operation until 2028, which probably means much later, by which time Mr. Jean may or may not still be in government.
Interestingly, the December news release indicated OPG’s plan for the project “includes the largest procurement of clean energy storage in Canada’s history.” That’s a development that will likely be set aside in Alberta for at least seven months – and possibly forever – thanks to the moratorium on new renewables projects.
There wasn’t a word in OPG’s December news release about the cost of this supposedly “small” project, but a little Googling reveals that in October the Ontario Crown corporation said the federal Canada Infrastructure Bank had committed $970 million to the project, just shy of a billion dollars!
This is an enormous sum, even if it is not the full amount that will be spent on the reactor after Ontario taxpayers have chipped in their provincial portion as well.
But at 300-megawatts power-generating capability, the SMR, so called, will probably be too small to be economically viable. Still, there’s nothing small about their price tag of these things, which is part of the problem with nuclear power generation.
Premier Smith likes to make it sound as if Alberta is going to build several SMRs to produce the power for more oilsands extraction while allowing Alberta to claim a smaller carbon footprint from the mining process.
This is wishful thinking at best, though, and quite possibly just a diversion to justify continuing to expand bitumen exports for a few more years.
If the OPG 300-megawatt BWRX-300 design planned for the Darlington site was deployed widely, the New Brunswick Media Co-op reported last month, “around 70 SMR units would need to be built and operating effectively on the grid between 2030 and 2050” to get Canada to net-zero by 2050.
That’s unlikely to happen.
Moreover, NB Media Co-op said, the cost of nuclear power generation is one reason why it has been declining worldwide. And “because SMRs lose out on economies of scale, they will produce even more expensive electricity.”
If you’re going to go nuclear, it makes more sense to build large plants OPG’s Pickering, Darlington and Bruce complexes.
Plus, the BWRX-300 design has not yet been approved by any safety regulator anywhere in the world.
Oh, and nuclear gets more expensive as time goes by, and the problem of disposing of nuclear waste doesn’t go away just because the reactor is uneconomically small.
If Alberta is thinking about building smaller, 100 megawatt, SMRs – as the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Invest Alberta Corp. and ARC Clean Technology Canada Inc. in March suggested – that adds another problem.
The ARC-100 reactor design – and a design is all it is, since one never been built – is cooled by molten salts and liquid sodium metal. “Despite decades of development work and billions invested, major technical challenges have prevented molten salt reactors and sodium cooled reactors from commercial viability,” the NB Media Co-op story noted.
Well, welcome back to Alberta, Mr. Jean! We hope you had a chance to do some shopping in Toronto to make your trip worthwhile.
Hello DJC,
As you mention, the end products of the nuclear reactors are very difficult to store safely. No one wants a facility for storage of spent rods in their neighbourhood.
If you look at Sellafield in the UK, most of it is too toxic for humans, and they are storing the nuclear waste by encasing it in glass. There is no facility for permanent storage yet. Decommissioning of Sellafield’s facilities and materials is scheduled for 2120, which is almost a hundred years from now, at an estimated cost of $ 207 billion Canadian. The expected cost of an underground storage facility which has not yet been built is an additional $91 billion Canadian. I think that the U S has a similar problem with nuclear waste, much of which sits in deteriorating metal and other containers because no one wants to deal with it or have in their neighbourhood. I have serious concerns about the so-called “small modular reactors”, a name which suggests that they are benign. They are, in fact, nuclear reactors which will produce waste that requires appropriate disposal which will be very expensive.
I read at one point that the spent fuel rods might be left in place in the small moduclar reactors if it is impractical to remove them. I don’t imagine that most Canadians fancy the idea of having buildings which house the small modular nuclear reactors with their spent fuel rods left in place forever.
At least the waste from nuclear power generation is not spewed into the air and water the way fossil fuel waste is. Even if all Ontario’s reactors closed tomorrow, there is still radioactive waste from 50 years of operation that must be stored. Build a deep geological repository deep in stable Canadian Shield rock. Use it for old and new waste.
Of course! The proven track record of renewables providing clean, green, safe energy cost-effectively means renewables must be stopped! There’s no Fording the stream of stupidity in Alberta. Welcome to the costly and unproven world of mini-nuclear power, with absolutely no moratorium on disposal of nuclear waste. Has Japan released the contaminated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean yet?
Imagine being able to store energy from renewables: impossible, obviously. Imagine being able to face the climate crisis head on by reducing greenhouse gases immediately through wind and solar power like we have been doing until now: also impossible. We’re at the Mad Hatter stage of UCP governance. Up is down. Down is up. What’s in the tea at the Tea Party?
The UCP under Danielle in Wonderland is all about raising the cost of electricity for the average citizen, and if it means cutting the renewables industry off at the knees, so be it. Let them eat cake! The Future’s so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.
Alberta is #1. It takes a lot of work to reach the apex of stupidity, but Danielle Smith and the UCP have done it.
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/08/alberta-halts-new-renewables-because-they-were-too-successful/
Oh look! Another leak of radioactive waste from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on the west coast just south of the BC border. Alberta can’t get it together to clean up toxic oil and gas sites and the UCP wants to build nuclear reactors and stop renewable electrical generation. Ontario hydro has spent nuclear fuel in giant swimming pools because dealing with the waste is too expensive and difficult. Dealing with nuclear waste is something the Yanks have been trying since 1945 at Hanford with almost no success.
https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article276863128.html
Let’s just say I avoid Walla Walla onions and Yakima Valley fruit. Oh, look, Hanford fallout already spread into Canada in 1986. Atomic rhubarb is only in Pembroke, Ontario, though, right?
https://hibakusha-worldwide.org/en/locations/hanford
http://tapcanada.org/wordpress/?p=437
That discovery math failure and SMR boosting opinionist from that Edmonton birdcage liner must be dancing with glee!
SMRs might, eventually, become viable commercial investments. In the meantime, they’re certain to be the next big boondoggle–now that bitumen is a mature industry.
Mike: I thought you were gonna say, “a mature boondoggle.” DJC
Well, yes. That, too. But “inefficient” subsidies for oil and gas will end. Want to bet who gets to define what’s inefficient?
…and the stupid just keeps coming.
https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2023/08/08/alberta-minister-says-federal-strings-on-electricity-climate-funding-a-threat/
Ahh, the “small modular reactors” – they’re the “golden rice” of energy production!
Perhaps Jean is smarter than we think to be as far away as possible while Smith and crew shoot themselves in the foot yet again.
In any event, I also doubt much will come of this trip to Ontario or the small nuclear reactors there.
I suspect all of this is diversionary and delay tactics. However, I have to wonder in a time of rising power rates how well Smith’s moratorium is going to go over with Alberta power users and voters. Inaction and increasing costs do not seem to be a good political combination.
The political attack ads practically write themselves – as power rates increase, Premier Smith delays new energy supplies, if an opposition is smart enough to take advantage of the situation.
The nuke kooks are back. Russia has lots of small Soviet era reactors abandoned on their landscape, waiting to create an ecological disaster. Theses buffoons can’t learn from this? They think we would be different.
The Netflix series “Chernobyl” is pretty fkucing terrifying.
I often disparage my “conservative” room mates on this finite planetary dormitory we quaintly refer to as Earth. In keeping with my personal ethos? Here’s their effing theme song! https://youtu.be/mOYZaiDZ7BM
Personally I think David Parker makes an amazing Bill Sr. from the song Stuart by the dead milkmen off the beelzebubba album.
I’ve explained it before. Once my name? Is enough. Thrice is when the going is tough! https://youtu.be/71PNZH1OaW0?t=1
–Ah POGO, the beauty of the forest gets me in the heart..
–It gets me in the feet porkypine..
–It IS hard walking on this stuff
–Yep son, we have met the enemy and he is us…
(the last comic) ???
Last comic? Comics are like cockroaches! Even harder to kill since the inter tubes! https://youtu.be/l6tEWWmdOyI
The following chart may explain the UCP brain trust’s attempt to stymie solar power. It can be seen that the advent of solar/wind power will probably wholly substitute for natural gas fired generation. The backers of the UCP can hardly see this as anything other than a calamity, as only Saskatchewan and Alberta rely on natural gas power plants mainly. So any short term excuse to stop the demise of their industry will do.
Alberta’s future electricity generation share by technology:
Technology Hydro
2030 4%
2050 2%
Technology Natural gas
2030 31%
2050 4%
Technology Natural gas CCS
2030 8%
Technology Nuclear
2030 0%
2050 0%
Technology Other fossil
2030 0%
2050 0%
Technology Solar
2030 0%
2050 13%
Technology Wind
2030 56%
2050 68%
Source: Canada Energy Regulator CBC News
To get off fossil fuels and to net-zero Green House Gas emissions earthlings will have to let nuclear power be part of the solution. But just like Jason Kenney’s announcement of his plan for SMRs on Aug 7, 2020 , this is “certainly intended as a distraction from a political embarrassment the day before” as DJC put it in his blog post at the time. The political embarrassment this time? The premiers incredibly dumb plan to halt renewable power projects. “Look over there, a squirrel.”
So, what’s your solution to waste material from a nuclear power plant? When my mom sold real estate in Port Hope, ON, properties being sold had to get a clean bill of health from Atomic Energy of Canada due to the dumping that had taken place in areas north of town that were of higher elevation.
Apparently the hatred for ‘Big Government’ by all the usual individuals posing as hard core ‘venture’ capitalist ideologues vanishes when the opportunity to fatten bank accounts, at the expense of the state, arises.
Noting that the 21st century version of the confidence trick/swindling operation has been refined somewhat ;where, in the past “”Ropers”, posing as rich financiers, industrialists, and millionaire sportsmen, began travelling the world in search of victims. The game itself took on more complicated and convincing formats.”
The refined modern swindle has actual “rich financiers, industrialists, and billionaires travelling the world” in search of government financial largesse. For example,
“Dr. Ramana explained that because SMRs only exist on paper, “the scale of investment needed to move these paper designs to a level of detail that would satisfy any reasonable nuclear safety regulator that the design is safe” would be in the billions of dollars. “I don’t see Gates and others being willing to invest anything of that scale. Instead, they invest a relatively small amount of money (compared to what they are worth financially) and then ask for government handouts for the vast majority of the investment that is needed.””
“Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist at Beyond Nuclear, told me by email that the companies involved in SMRs “don’t care” if the technology is actually workable, “so long as they get paid more subsidies from the unsuspecting public. It’s not a question of it working, necessarily,” he noted.”
“Gordon Edwards, President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, says governments “are being suckers. Because if Wall Street and the banks will not finance this, why should it be the role of the government to engage in venture capitalism of this kind?””
https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/mini-nukes-big-bucks-the-money-behind-small-modular-reactors/
Private personal profit, funding/subsidies by the state, and the socialization of any losses is the guaranteed method of further enriching the economic privileged class by means of political intermediaries and the standard patron/client quid pro quo in the 21st century corporate/state.
The siren call of the ‘shadow government’ organ grinder(s) will ensure that the lobbyist monkey dances accordingly, both inside and outside the Legislature.
Many people are saying this explains the SMR obsession of a certain Edmonton based opinionist.
Danielle Smith stole the election.
Scotty– LOL—I’m in, let’s go, if d’rump et al can carry it for 3+yrs, we have some extra time to work with before the next election; and we can use JK’s outstanding investigation as fodder, since TBA ousted him… Turn about is fair play!!
Hah, exactly right. “Danielle Smith stole the election” Scotty you win the thread and my laugh for today.
Nuclear power isn’t foolproof, and it has serious risks. It’s not the smartest thing to pursue. When the Alberta PCs were in power, this issue was brought up, and Albertans didn’t want this. Where will the nuclear waste get stored? If the UCP can’t handle tailings pond leaks properly, nuclear waste will be a cause for concern.
FWIW—
Brian Jean/ Rajan Sawhney
trip to South Korea…..Feb 27/2023 https://rdnewsnow.com
fortmacmurraytoday.com
Brian Jean talks small modular reactors, pitches hydrogen–March 20/23 –if all goes well Jean predicts South Korea and Alberta will develop future partnerships….
Mining for Bitcoin in Alberta’s oil sands /the Narwhal
https://thenarwhal.ca>bitcoin mining…
(there were about 40 crypto mining companies in Alberta and virtually all of them were running off natural gas- Nov 5/22)
And since Dani is such a big proponent of the ‘tech’ sector –
July 6/23 Xeets”—- I’ve long been an advocate for this technology and was honored to receive the ‘supporter of the year award ‘ from the Canadian Blockchain Consortium….
imho, why this matters is how much power is used to run them, how much water to cool. Nuclear power units that may or may not be built in the future, but in the meantime …..
**I don’t suppose those strings from Ottawa have anything to do with this, right? nah !!!!
footnote– Wbrett Wilson buying majority shares in Maxim power in Jan and all that entails…..
Just more ‘behind the scenes’ moves going on with all the United Calgary Party .
PS….Abs, I thought you were headed for ‘ Sunshine, lolipops , and rainbows ‘, but thanks to GPrairie Macdavid and the new late summer/ fall convoy 2023– “Save the Children “…..mad hatter isn’t the half of it, about those Walla walla onions…..
SMR’s – A pig in a poke if ever there was one. That being said, if the UCP support it, I imagine the majority of Alberta voters will support it. Certainly, the rural folk will be behind it four square, even as the nuclear waste is piling up in their back yards. They are peculiar in that regard.
I don’t think it’s peculiar, just greedy.
Yup, l’il Johnny will be born with 3 toes and an extra eye, but the rural rubes will find a way to blame Trudeau.
A smokescreen recycled from Kenney’s repertoire intended for the easily distracted.
When for goodness sake will the word modular be dropped. A nuclear reactor is just that, a nuclear reactor. Everything from furniture to automobiles to large sea vessels is built from premade, i.e. modular components. If Ms. Smith has any coherent thoughts on where the used cooling water will be discharged or how and where the used fuel will be stored and disposed she’s keeping mum. Maybe the latter could be dropped to the bottom of the bitumen extraction industry’s tailing ponds as we head towards more ‘red tape reduction’ deregulation and no one’s watching
Follow the money. Then follow the advisors. Which leads to the money flowing from US right wing sources into the UCP’s coffers via (to be determined) Canadian individuals and organizations. Certain deep pockets will benefit from this pause while the whole SNR pie in the sky provides some distraction. Meanwhile she gets to beat on JT.
Hello DJC,
I wonder why the Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick governments have signed a memorandum of understanding to pay for research into small modular reactors when these small nuclear reactors aren’t going to provide enough power and aren’t going to be built for a long time, if ever.
Thanks to alkyl for quoting Dr Ramana, whom I have looked up. After reading the article by 3 authors, (link below) including Dr M V Ramana, 2020 Wall Scholar at UBC, it seems clear that these reactors are nowhere near the actuality of being built, especially in view of their questionable safety and effectiveness. Teh amount of money that this potential industry has attracted seems to be well over a billion dollars and there are no reactors built so far.
This seems to support alkyl’s thesis that the objective is to attract government funding, whether or not a safe and reliable product is produced. The idea that these small nuclear reactors be foisted on Frist Nations, with the prospect that the reactors just be left there after they have ceased providing power, since removal is not practical. The idea of these reactors for other remote locations has also been suggested. Here is the link to an article as well as an article from March 2023 about Moltex demanding $250 million in investment by government in addition to the $60 million Moltex has already received. https://nbmediacoop.org/2021/04/04/more-nuclear-reactors-smrs-a-bad-investment-for-new-brunswick/
Here is the second link that I mentioned with respect to Moltex’s expectation of additional funds from government to fund them.
https://nbmediacoop.org/2023/03/02/commentary-moltexs-nuclear-ransom-note-should-be-rejected/
What is a cooling rod? That photo is a fuel package. CANDU also have control rods made of a neutron absorber that are raised and lowered into the core where the fuel bundles are to control the rate of the reaction. How do you expect to explain a technology you do not even understand?
Since a Small Modular Reactor will be for-sure, 100% safe since the TBA government says so, then it stands to reason the reactors should be installed in downtown Fort McMurray. Perhaps we can dump that inconvenient “waste” in those super-safe and clean tailing ponds surrounding the city.
In true Reform Party fashion they are once again destroying jobs and don’t give a damn about who is effected. Ignoring what oil executives have been saying about how these federal government targets can be met using green energy. That was one of the major points the former conservative MLAs made to me when our family were involved with them.
Last Tuesday my wife and I were in a restaurant in Leduc and overheard a group of senior women whining about how some of them that had supported the UCP and have now been advised that their doctors are leaving and they were really upset that Smith hasn’t done something to stop them. How is she going to do that? Apparently they learned nothing during the Klein years. I had a really hard time trying to keep from saying something to these fools who aren’t smart enough to understand that there is nothing conservative about these UCP Reformers. Just too dumb to realize it.
When I first heard the term ‘SMR’, I pictured the kind of reactor used to drive nuclear submarines, but bolted to a concrete pad instead of a ship. Such reactors have operated for decades in the US Navy, British Royal Navy, &. French Navy with excellent safety records. Am I wrong?
But, of course, what to do with spent fuel and other high-grade nuclear waste is the perpetual quandary with no satisfactory answer.