Building on a partnership established between Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta for SMR development in 2021 — the two prairie provinces have now agreed to collaborate on additional areas of nuclear interest.
The Government of Saskatchewan announced a new memorandum of understanding with Alberta last week. It will focus on industrial decarbonization, grid reliability and other key topics relevant to the nuclear industry.
“Our provinces are leading the world in responsible energy development,” Alberta Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf said in a press release. “We look forward to learning from Saskatchewan’s experience with nuclear generation.”
The provinces will share information on nuclear supply chains, fuel supply security, small modular reactors (SMR) and more.
Saskatchewan and Alberta do not currently have any nuclear power stations. Canada has five plants in Ontario and one in New Brunswick. However, despite its lack of atomic energy infrastructure, Saskatchewan is one of the world’s primary sources of uranium needed for fuel that powers those reactors.
At an event in the Saskatchewan Legislature, Minister of CIC Dustin Duncan joined Alberta Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf to sign a MOU to support collaboration and information sharing on key areas of nuclear power generation.
Our government has a… pic.twitter.com/6x4ARRHt8G— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) May 5, 2024
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World SMR project pipeline expands by 65 per cent since 2021
That is according to a recent report from the analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, which says those projects will require about C$240.5 billion to complete.
Saskatchewan initiated a partnership with Ontario Power Generation to help construct its first SMR last fall. Estevan and Elbow have been selected as potential sites for the province’s first-of-its-kind power unit. A conclusive decision about its location is expected by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan’s stature as a top uranium producer is expected to be augmented even more as operations at NexGen Energy Ltd.’s (TSX: NXE) Rook I project in the Athabasca Basin continue to ramp up. It will provide up to 23 per cent of the world’s supply.
An accelerated rate of uranium exploration has ensued in Saskatchewan in recent days to meet a growing demand for nuclear fuel. Top prospectors identifying new targets which may turn out to be the next valuable deposit include Stallion Uranium Corp. (TSX-V: STUD), ATHA Energy Corp. (CSE: SASK) (OTCQB: SASKF) (FRA: X5U) and CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V: CVV).
Leading Saskatchewan academic institutions agreed to establish a new school for the mining and energy industries in the province at the end of last year. The Global Insitute for Energy, Mines and Society, announced at the COP28 conference in Dubai, will be opening at an unspecified date.
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