In his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates brings the issue of nuclear power into focus, specifically highlighting the benefits of new technology such as small modular reactors (SMRs). Alberta Premier Jason Kenney notably joined a memorandum of understanding this past summer, pledging to help advance the development and deployment of this very same technology.
Dr. Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University and author of Canada, The Provinces, and the Global Nuclear Revival, said SMRs could be quite vital in the future.
“. . .Oil sands companies are interested in the discussion around SMRs because of their size, because of their potential reality of displacing natural gas, which would drop emissions in the oil sands, as well as the possibility of cogeneration of heat. So, we’re still years away from the commercialization, but we are on the pathway, both in in Alberta and in the rest of the country”.
Dr. Bratt also expanded on the concept of energy security. The idea behind energy security is to be less reliant on imports, as well as to combat volatility in the production process. In Dr. Bratt’s example he points to the fact that uranium, the primary fuel component of a standard nuclear reactor, is not the biggest expense. That honour would go to construction and operation. In contrast, if the cost of natural gas was to rise then there would be a steep increase in cost of production.
“If you look at a place like Ukraine, which was reliant on imports of Russian natural gas, and Russia shut off the flow of natural gas, it really damaged the Ukrainian economy because they didn’t have energy security”.
Dr. Gordon Edwards, co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR), brought up a much different example.
“When [the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster] happened, all of the electricity generation in Japan was stopped because the grid went down, right? But the only supply that still worked were the windmills. The offshore windmills which were floating in the ocean with buoys and so on- they were still working. So, in fact, wind power was working when the nuclear plants couldn’t”, said Dr. Edwards.
This potential unreliability is one of many concerns raised by the CCNR. The most prominent ones include fear of weapon proliferation, prohibitive costs, as well as too long of a timeline to properly combat climate change- if they are helping to combat climate change at all.
“Saying these reactors are clean is sort of like saying that Trump won the election- you know it’s just absolutely false, because in fact every nuclear reactor- including the small ones, produce the most dangerous industrial waste that has ever been produced by any industry in human history”, said Dr. Edwards. He puts far more faith in renewable energy such as solar or wind.
“. . . Renewables have been growing faster than any other form of energy worldwide for the last 10 years 15 years, and they’re without the kind of subsidization and government support that nuclear has had.”
The memorandum of understanding signed by Alberta states a commitment to “positively influence the federal government to provide a clear unambiguous statement that nuclear energy is a clean tech and is required as part of the climate change solution”.
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