Province puts energy security over energizing N.B. economy as it shops for nuclear reactors
CBC
New Brunswick’s energy minister says expanding nuclear power generation in the province quickly is more important than spending more time and more taxpayer dollars chasing a surge in economic activity through locally made reactors.
“I really want N.B. Power to take care of energy security right now. That's the key. If there's an economic bit you're engaging Opportunities New Brunswick, that's more their field,” Rene Legacy said.
“So we're just maybe separating the two where people were confusing energy security and development at the same time, which kind of muddied the waters.”
Legacy says the province could be lining up for Ontaio-made reactors that just received $3 billion in public funding from the federal and Ontario governments, rather than waiting for reactors from ARC Clean Energy or Moltex, two companies that had planned to build at Point Lepreau.
N.B. Power has said that it’s clear neither of those companies will be ready for 2030, while the GE-Hitachi reactor in Darlington, Ont., is expected to be online by then.
Legacy said that betting on the first-of-a-kind technology is often too expensive and that the province is “technology agnostic,” wanting to see it proven elsewhere before it commits.
“We really don't want the first of a kind,” he said. “New Brunswick is not in a position to take that kind of a risk.”
That’s despite the more than $80 million from the provincial and federal government given to ARC and Moltex since 2018.
Both the Brian Gallant government, and the Higgs one that came after, saw it as a chance to generate non-emitting, baseload power to help the province meet its climate targets, while providing economic spinoff to the province.
“New Brunswick is going to be front and centre as a leader on the globe as it relates to this emerging technology,” Mike Holland, energy minister in the previous government, said during a question period exchange in November 2023.
“It has been five years of me speaking quite extensively about this. Standing behind this technology is what has led us to the point where we are now being highlighted as a world leader.”
Two years later, Legacy is taking a different view, saying that it’s possible the two reactors under development in New Brunswick do become commercially viable and successful, but New Brunswick won’t necessarily be on the cutting edge of the technology.
That’s OK, Legacy said, adding that New Brunswick isn’t competing with Ontario for a piece of the SMR pie.
“We are competing with the U.S., we are competing with the U.K.,” Legacy said
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