As Sask. pushes nuclear power, questions raised about costs, other options

The Saskatchewan government and SaskPower have promised to begin researching ways to create a large nuclear reactor in the province.

While some say a nuclear reactor would benefit the economy, others point to the financial costs and environmental considerations as factors that should give the province pause. Here's a look at some of the issues.

Nuclear reactors are the core of a nuclear power plant. They control nuclear chain reactions that produce heat through a physical process called fission. The heat makes steam that spins a turbine to create electricity.

The reactors would be powered by uranium sourced in Saskatchewan.

Nuclear reactors have the capacity to generate mass amounts of electricity at once, especially if it's coming from a large-scale source.

This has opened a wider conversation about Saskatchewan’s role in the future of nuclear energy.

Advocates say nuclear power will benefit our economy. A big nuclear site would create many job opportunities and could also allow for Saskatchewan energy to be exported interprovincially.

“Potentially sharing some of the base load with Alberta, for example, could make a lot of sense selling some of the power over the border,” Jeter Hall, the director of the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Energy, told CBC.

“It would require new transmission lines to take that sort of electricity from here to their jurisdiction.”

The province said it's still committed to creating small modular reactors (SMRs), alongside researching ways to create a large reactor.

SMRs are projected to cost between $3 billion and $5 billion per unit.

Hall said creating one large reactor would be more cost-efficient than creating multiple SMRs.

“Larger reactors are attractive because there’s a number of technologies that are being deployed worldwide,” Hall said. “They’re being tested and proven, those reactor designs.”

“Typically at the larger scale, they’re a bit more economical, so trying to make sure that we keep rates down and affordable for the people of Saskatchewan.”