OPINION: Canada needs more clean power. Ottawa’s $1-billion for nuclear is just a start – by Editorial (Globe and Mail – October 31, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It’s been three decades since a new nuclear power plant started producing electricity in Canada. Last week, Ottawa put almost $1-billion on the table to kick-start work on the next one.

This time, the technology is American and Japanese, and the power output will be a third of the hulking CANDU reactors of the past. The new technology, a small modular reactor (SMR) that’s never been built in North America, remains unlicensed in Canada, but its backers, Ottawa and Queen’s Park, believe it will be operating in six years at the Darlington nuclear facility northeast of Toronto.

The price tag is not public. Ottawa’s Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $970-million contribution, announced last Tuesday, is supposed to pay for everything up to construction, including the project design.

Ottawa’s hope is a success at Darlington could lead to similar projects in Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick – all still reliant on fossil fuels for power. The federal Liberals, invoking Canada’s nuclear history, call SMRs “the next great opportunity.”

For the rest of this editorial: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-canada-needs-more-clean-power-ottawas-1-billion-for-nuclear-is-just-a/