Saskatchewan, along with the provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick and Alberta, released the plan to advance small modular reactors, or SMRs, for power generation.  

The report, which was released during a press conference in Regina Monday morning, highlights the use of SMRs to provide safe, reliable and zero-emission energy. The report also identified five key priorities for SMR development and deployment. 

The areas are the positioning of Canada as an exporter of global SMR technology, promoting a strong nuclear regulatory framework that focuses on the health and safety of the public as well as the environment, securing federal government commitments on financial and policy support for new SMR technologies, creating opportunities for participation from Indigenous communities and working with the federal government and nuclear operators on a nuclear waste management plan for SMRs. 

The plan came about after Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan entered into a memorandum of understanding in December of 2019. Alberta signed on to the MOU in April of 2021. 

While there were no announcements made during the press conference Monday morning, there were some hints as to what an SMR would mean for Saskatchewan.  

Don Morgan, the Minister Responsible for SaskPower, explained that no decision has been made as of yet here in the province if an SMR would be built. 

“Saskatchewan will not make a final decision on whether to build an SMR for several years, but SaskPower’s project team has been working diligently on the initial planning work to help inform that decision,” explained Morgan. “A critical part of this planning work is extensive engagement and public dialogue throughout the entire province.” 

During the press conference, Morgan pointed to the increases in renewable resource power generation in Saskatchewan, namely wind and solar, but added that a source of baseload power would be needed to help the province reach the goal of zero emissions through power generation by 2050. This is where a small modular reactor would come into play, as they typically generate 350 megawatts of power, which is enough to provide electricity for 300,000 homes. 

The location of where a small modular reactor would be placed in Saskatchewan was brought up during the press conference. It was asked if Coronach or Estevan, where there is already infrastructure in place to connect to the grid as well as sources of water to assist with cooling, would be viable options. 

“Those would be two options,” Morgan said. “There’s other options as well. Site selection is a significant factor for us and we would obviously want to have significant community engagement, but yes, those would be two potential sites.” 

In a press release accompanying the conference, it was highlighted that Ontario is starting the work to deploy Canada’s first grid-scale SMR at their Darlington nuclear site. It was also explained that micro, off-grid SMRs could be used to displace diesel generation used in mining in remote areas as well as heat and electricity generation in northern remote communities.