BULLETINS - SMRs Information Task Force

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Bulletin No. 16 • June 2025 -

Tariff threats spur need for “east-west” electricity integration

Canada must focus on increasing our energy security.

Unfortunately Ontario is increasing reliance on the US by building four US GE-Hitachi nuclear reactors which require US enriched uranium fuel.

This is not the time to increase our economic and energy dependency on the US. Sharing renewable electricity interprovincially can cut that dependency.

As Prime Minister Carney has suggested, Canada can be an energy superpower, but only if we follow the world by focusing on low-cost, reliable renewable energy.

We do not need a power corridor from coast to coast. We need more east-west interconnection of regional and distributed transmission systems. This would allow the growth and sharing of new community-based, low-cost renewable energy, creating local green jobs while meeting Canadian needs.

The renewable grid would build on our existing hydroelectric base and draw in new power from our abundant wind and solar resources.

For example, the Ontario government recently introduced an act opening procurements to renewable power from Manitoba and Quebec. This corresponded with Manitoba announcing 500 MW of renewable power available after ending US export contracts. Quebec's massive hydro reservoirs are a giant battery to support renewables in eastern provinces.

When connected, integrated renewable and storage systems can optimize generation, increasing grid stability while providing redundancies to deal with variable weather or unplanned outages.

Importantly, an integrated renewable grid would avoid the high costs of large new centralized fossil and nuclear power plants while eliminating toxic emissions and wastes associated with them.

The federal government should encourage greater coordination and integration of provincial and territorial systems through climate policies and financial support.

By coordinating and connecting distributed regional and community grids, we can create a resilient, renewable, clean and affordable electricity system for all Canadians.

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Visit smrs-info.ca to learn more

The SMRs Education Task Force is a network of groups in Canada concerned and active on the nuclear file. Together we have many decades of experience providing information to Canadians about nuclear issues, including the proposed small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). We are providing this bulletin free of charge to encourage more informed awareness of SMRs and their potential implications for communities across the country.

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Bulletin Number 17 - July 2025

"Local opposition grows to the Peace River Nuclear Power Project."

SMRs INFORMATION TASK FORCE

[ https://campaign-statistics.com/browser ... rvv-1Dcj9h ]

"The 300 members of the Society of High Prairie Regional Environmental Action Committee (REAC) in Alberta are concerned and opposed to the proposal to build four large CANDU reactors in their region.

At public meetings, REAC members questioned why an additional 4,800 megawatts of electricity is needed. Local communities are being asked to accept routine radioactive air emissions and the long-term storage of nuclear waste. Contaminants deposited in the forest ‘re-volatize’ into the air when burned, adding cumulative effects.

CANDU reactors operating in other provinces have experienced regular shutdowns due to equipment failures and also planned and unplanned radioactive releases. Yet preparatory documents for the Peace River CANDU project hardly mention potential health issues at all.

Federal taxpayers are supporting the multinational company AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC Lavalin) to develop its new ‘MONARK’ CANDU design in Alberta. The CANDU reactors built in Ontario and New Brunswick have been financial boondoggles.

The citizens of the Peace River area overwhelmingly rejected nuclear proposals in 2009, and yet here they are again. REAC’s additional concerns include:

- Water lost to evaporative cooling
- Storage of ‘heavy’ (radioactive) water
- Water availability for severe accidents
- Emergency preparedness – no Vacuum Building included in Model Plan

Project proponents say: “...severe accidents are not realistically expected during the plant's lifetime.” REAC says: emergency preparedness includes having realistic expectations to plan for severe accidents.

Among the many unanswered questions:

Are there plans to compensate local farmers and traditional land users in case of a severe incident?

What provisions are in place for monitoring locally produced milk, meat and leafy vegetables for radioactive iodine and cesium following a severe nuclear accident?

What methods will be used to decontaminate buildings and remediate contaminated soil?
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Visit smrs-info.ca to learn more

The SMRs Education Task Force is a network of groups in Canada concerned and active on the nuclear file. Together we have many decades of experience providing information to Canadians about nuclear issues, including the proposed small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). We are providing this bulletin free of charge to encourage more informed awareness of SMRs and their potential implications for communities across the country."

[Oscar]

Bulletin number 20 - Boosting Nuclear Power Is Not Nation-Building

October 2025 - La version française suit

[ https://campaign-statistics.com/browser ... vlvq-gy2qC ]

Prime Minister Mark Carney has released his priority “nation-building projects,” including the Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) in Ontario. He claims this project will “build Canada strong,” but nuclear power is the slowest, most expensive way of providing electricity, far greater than the costs of renewables and energy storage.

Canada’s nuclear regulator has already fast-tracked the DNNP, awarding a construction license despite the lack of a credible environmental assessment or an approved design.

The projected cost of the DNNP’s “small modular reactor” (SMR) is in the billions, greatly exceeding the $970 million contribution from the Canada Infrastructure Bank in 2022. There is essentially no interest by private investors in nuclear power owing to its substantial financial risks, so it is funded by taxpayers and ratepayers.

The BWRX-300 SMR planned for the DNNP is American, made by GE Hitachi. Its projected completion date is 2030, though almost all reactors built in the past have overshot their expected completion dates by years, often decades. Canada would have to buy enriched uranium fuel for this American reactor from the U.S. because enriched fuel is not produced in Canada.

Many unanswered questions remain about this dubious “nation-building project”. Prime Minister Carney may hope that Canada will become a global energy “superpower” by selling SMRs all over the world, but how likely is this? The BWRX-300 is untested technology with no performance track record. SMRs are far from being built at scale to bring the exorbitant price down. Canada has not sold a reactor since the 1970s. Canada would have an American reactor, reliant on American fuel, and subject to the whims of an unpredictable American administration.

Spending billions of taxpayer dollars on nuclear power, using an American reactor that uses American fuel, when cheaper, cleaner technologies already exist, does not make sense as a “nation-building project.”

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Le nucléaire ne construira pas un Canada fort

Le premier ministre Mark Carney a inclus le nouveau projet nucléaire Darlington (NPND) parmi ses projets prioritaires « d’intérêt national ». Il affirme que ce projet ontarien « construira un Canada fort » même si l’énergie nucléaire est la façon la plus lente et la plus coûteuse de produire de l’électricité. Elle coûte beaucoup plus cher que les énergies renouvelables avec stockage d’énergie.

L’organisme de règlementation du nucléaire au Canada avait déjà accéléré le NPND : il a accordé le permis de construire sans évaluation environnementale crédible et avant qu’on ait choisi un modèle de réacteur.

On prévoit maintenant que le « petit réacteur modulaire » du NPND coûtera des milliards$, bien au-delà des 970 millions$ que la Banque de l’infrastructure du Canada a fournis en 2022. L’énergie nucléaire présente de tels risques financiers qu’elle n’attire pratiquement aucun investisseur privé. Son financement repose donc sur les contribuables et les consommateurs.

Le NPND sera doté d’un réacteur américain, le BWRX-300 conçu chez GE Hitachi. On prévoit terminer ce « petit réacteur modulaire » (PRM) en 2030 mais presque tous les réacteurs actuels sont entrés en service plusieurs années après la date prévue, des décennies plus tard, bien souvent. Pour alimenter ce réacteur américain, le Canada devra aussi acheter de l’uranium enrichi aux États-Unis puisque nous n’en produisons pas chez nous.

Ce douteux « projet d’édification nationale » soulève beaucoup de questions. Le premier ministre Carney peut bien espérer que le Canada devienne une « superpuissance » énergétique en vendant ces PRM au monde entier mais est-ce vraisemblable? Aucun BWRX-300 n’a jamais été construit et mis à l’épreuve. Nous sommes très loin d’une production en série qui permettait de réduire leur coût exorbitant. Le Canada n’a pas vendu un seul réacteur depuis les années ‘70. Le Canada aurait donc un réacteur américain, dépendant d’un combustible américain et soumis aux caprices d’une administration américaine imprévisible.

Il n’y a aucun « intérêt national » à consacrer des milliards$ de fonds publics à l’énergie nucléaire, avec un réacteur américain qui brûle du combustible américain, quand il existe d’autres technologies moins chères et moins polluantes.

Le groupe de travail sur l'éducation relative aux PRM est un réseau de groupes canadiens préoccupés et actifs dans le dossier nucléaire. Ensemble, nous avons plusieurs décennies d'expérience dans la fourniture d'informations aux Canadiens sur les questions touchant au nucléaire, y compris les projets de petits réacteurs nucléaires modulaires (PRM). Nous fournissons ce bulletin gratuitement afin d'encourager une prise de conscience plus éclairée des PRM et de leurs implications potentielles pour les communautés à travers le pays.


SMRs Information Task Force -
Le groupe de travail sur l'éducation relative aux PRM
Visit smrs-info.ca to learn more.

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