Opinion: Nuclear energy — We CANDU it and we should – by Chris Keefer (Financial Post – November 24, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Chris Keefer, a physician, is president of Canadians for Nuclear and director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy.

CANDU, the made-in-Canada nuclear reactor technology that powered the Ontario coal phaseout, North America’s greatest greenhouse-gas reduction, is the victim of a bizarre form of reverse protectionism that favours overseas supply chains and technologies over homegrown ones.

The federal government recently announced a 30 per cent “Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit” to incentivize spending on a range of clean-energy technologies, such as wind, solar and storage.

Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are also covered, a bold step for Ottawa, given its historically lukewarm positions on nuclear energy. But CANDU technology, which underpins the entire existing Canadian nuclear sector, is left out of the tax credit pending further consideration.

This is bad news for Canadian climate action and the Canadian economy. CANDU, ranked as one of Canada’s top 10 engineering achievements, has a proven track record of deep and rapid de-carbonization. Twenty-three CANDU reactors were commissioned in just 22 years in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick between 1971 and 1993.

For the rest of this column: https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-nuclear-energy-we-candu-it-and-we-should