Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe made national headlines when it was announced he had signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, on the development of small modular reactors. The move came as the premiers gathered in Toronto for Council of Confederation meetings which are being chaired by Moe.

The work on small modular reactors isn’t new for the province of Saskatchewan. Dustin Duncan, the minister responsible for SaskPower, explained the Crown corporation has been involved in the process for some time now.

“SaskPower has been part of some discussion over the past couple of years that were instigated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), who asked interested parties to put together a roadmap on the deployment of SMRs in Canada,” Duncan said. 

SMR’s are a relatively new technology that is still being developed. At this time, there aren’t any operational SMR’s in the world, but work happening in the United States, spearheaded by the Tennessee Valley Authority, could see them start to come online by the middle of the next decade. 

The MOU signed by the premiers on the weekend is part of the development process here in Canada, Duncan added.

“The provincial governments are endorsing the work that’s been done by Crown corporations and private companies in these three jurisdictions that are looking at whether or not SMRs are workable for Canada.”

Small nuclear reactors such as these are a far cry from the behemoths which come to mind when people think of nuclear reactors. The iconic cooling stacks which are seen at facilities around the world nowhere the same as what is being developed.

“It’s a modular size,” Duncan stated. “So, they’re built off-site, essentially built in a factory.” 

The reactors themselves are relatively portable and can be moved to other sites as needed, depending on the needs of the grid at the time. They could also provide a source of power for northern communities which are isolated from the regular power grid.

The reactors can be scaled up, and joined together to increase the output of power. They range from 40 megawatts all the way up to 700-megawatt hours depending on the configuration of the reactors. This will help to meet the power needs of the grid, while also working to keep emissions down, according to Duncan.

Research and development for small modular reactors are still underway. There is no timeline at this point as to when they will be developed for deployment in Canada.