What would nuclear power look like for the Prairies?

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There are a lot of options in energy for Canada — hydro, wind, solar, biomass, natural gas, geothermal … the list goes on.

As we work to decarbonize our electricity sources, there is growing interest in nuclear power.

Nuclear power has a long history in Canada, with the first plant, the Nuclear Power Demonstration Reactor in Rolphton, Ont., going online in the early 1960s.

Today, larger nuclear generating stations in Ontario and New Brunswick supply about 15 per cent of Canada's electricity.

But what about the Prairies? There is no nuclear power in Alberta and Saskatchewan as of today. Alberta currently produces nearly 90 per cent of its electricity from natural gas and coal; in Saskatchewan, fossil fuels provide about 80 per cent of electricity.

But as the country looks to phase out fossil fuel use, what could the future look like?

While New Brunswick is home to one nuclear generating station, most of Canada's nuclear power lies in Ontario, which has three generating stations — Pickering, Darlington and Bruce.

Canada's nuclear power plants use nuclear fission. Atoms from a uranium fuel are split apart, releasing energy in the form of heat and radiation. The heat is used to create steam from water. The steam then spins a turbine, creating electricity.

Spent fuel — radioactive waste — must be stored securely for decades or even centuries. 

While a new large nuclear plant has not been built in Canada since the Darlington plant came online in the early '90s, there is development on the way for small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs.

SMRs come with some changes from the larger plants, said Gary Rose, vice-president of new nuclear growth at Ontario Power Generation, which operates the Pickering and Darlington facilities.

"They're smaller, and because they're smaller they can be more modular and built in factories and have a much more predictable cost and schedule to deploy," Rose said.

Ontario Power Generation is leading the country in SMR development. A small reactor under construction at Darlington is expected to be operating by 2029.