Province pledges $600K to study fossil fuel site's nuclear potential

Alberta is hoping to expedite the arrival of nuclear power to the province — though that target is likely about a decade away, Premier Danielle Smith said Tuesday.

The province remains a distance away from deploying its first small modular reactor (SMR) as it continues to develop a framework for the private sector and watches Ontario bring its first reactor to market later this decade, Smith said.

“Our industry is anticipating it will take until 2035 to be able to get the first nuclear rolled out in our province. I hope that we can do it a lot faster than that,” Smith said Tuesday at the SMR Canada Summit in Calgary.

The province announced $600,000 is being allocated to SMR developer X-energy Reactor Co. LLC, in partnership with Transalta Corp., to study repurposing a fossil fuel electricity generation site for a nuclear reactor. The funding will come from Crown-owned Emissions Reduction Alberta, which is funded through revenues from Alberta's industrial carbon pricing system known as the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regulation.

It comes after a January announcement that Edmonton-based Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) would assess developing SMRS in Alberta.

“We're hoping the federal government will work with us to be able to streamline the approval processes once that's proven technology ... if we can roll it out faster, I think that there are a number of municipalities that would be interested in trying it,” Smith said.

While Alberta is currently undergoing a review of its electricity grid, the province also needs to consider nuclear's industrial applications for sectors such as oil and gas, which use significant amounts of natural gas to power operations, Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf said.

“It's kind of a different conversation (than electricity) but it's something that we're well aware of because of its applications beyond electricity,” Neudorf said. “We are trying to grapple with those conversations right now.”

Birch Hills County, north of Grande Prairie that's home to about 1,600 people, is trying to sell its residents on the benefits of SMRS.

The region's oil and gas sector has been in decline for several years, said Larry Davidson, chief administration officer. The county has recently been seeking partnerships in the private sector to explore whether nuclear would be a feasible energy source for their region, and most recently hired a consultant to help explain how nuclear would affect the region, Davidson said.

Birch Hills County Reeve Albert Poetker said, “We are trying to put the cart before the horse because so often people's backs are up and you can give all the information you want ... you won't change their mind.”