Perhaps it’s time to revisit nuclear alternatives

The nuclear power debate in Saskatchewan never really went away.

Sure, it’s been dormant for much of the past decade since the 2009 Uranium Development Partnership (UDP) report and public consultations by former deputy minister Dan Perrins, whose work seemingly put an end to the matter.

Notwithstanding then-energy minister Bill Boyd’s assessment that Perrins’s UDP report was “neither a green light nor a yellow light for future uranium development ... (but) more yellow light — ‘take your time. Get it right. Consider all the options,’” this was a red light.

Of the submissions Perrins received in 2009, 86 per cent opposed nuclear power compared with only 14 per cent that supported it.

Any such process is weighed heavily toward opposition voices, but this was overwhelming. About the only true consensus was 99 per cent of those who participated in the process didn’t think there was enough information. Asked at the time why his process seemed to fail so miserably at informing the public, Perrins deadpanned: Both sides believed the other side needed more information.

But while the Global Transportation Hub showed why Boyd wasn’t exactly known for his foresight — or slowing down for yellow lights, for that matter — there may be some validity to any notion that Saskatchewan people were never as opposed to nuclear power as they were to costly large-scale power plants. After all, an April 2009 survey by Sigma Analytics showed 47.8 per cent favouring a nuclear power plant compared with 33.5 per cent opposed.

Clearly, Perrins’s work ran into a buzz saw of fervent anti-nukes backed by a loud chorus of NIMBY types who simply did not want a big, costly old-style reactor in their backyards.

They had a point: The costs — $14 billion to build the country’s last nuclear reactor in Darlington, Ont., or even the $8-billion to $10-billion price tag for a proposed 1,000-megawatt plant — were excessive. Moreover, Saskatchewan’s electrical generation woes stemmed from a massive and aging distribution system rather than a need for concentrated power for large urban settings. It just was never a good fit.

Some of these realities haven’t changed much in the past 10 years since Saskatchewan last seriously considered nuclear power, but what clearly has changed is nuclear technology.

Even before Sunday’s signing of the MOU with Ontario and New Brunswick, Premier Scott Moe was suggesting as early as last May that small modular reactors (SMRS) may now be a good fit for both this province’s future electrical needs and its desire to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

On Monday, Saskpower and Environment Minister Dustin Duncan outlined the province’s case for at least further exploration of SMRS — the most compelling of which would be erasing all provincial GHGS from the province’s electrical generation by 2050 — well above and beyond current targets of reducing GHGS by 40 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Sure, there’s reason to suspect this may be a calculated distraction from meeting those more immediate GHG goals ... not to mention a whole host of other problems. And, yes, we are at least a decade away from SMRS being a viable alternative and this week’s SMR push was shy on information about costs. Nevertheless, the case now being made for at least exploring SMR technology is an interesting one — largely because smaller modular units with their lower megawatt output are far more in line with Saskatchewan’s needs and budget.

As legitimate as it is for detractors to say this is taking far too long, the reality is we just can’t stop carbon emissions tomorrow — especially on the electrical generation side of the equation, where we remain reliant on burning coal even as politicians make commitments to phase it out.

Perhaps it’s still a leap of faith to entrust our future to unproven SMRS, but aren’t we arguing all things should be on the table? Maybe the choice is no longer one for just Moe, Duncan and the Sask. Party government. Maybe those worried about GHGS destroying the planet have to assess whether SMRS are simply the lesser of evils.