The Saskatchewan and Alberta governments have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) is to support collaboration and information sharing in key areas of nuclear power generation. It supports policies of both provinces aimed at achieving net zero by 2050.
The MOU, signed at a ceremony at the Saskatchewan legislature, covered: nuclear supply chains and workforce development; security of supply of fuels; and development and regulation of nuclear reactor technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs). The provinces will also work to advance industrial decarbonisation and enhance electrical grid capabilities.
This follows an earlier MOU signed in 2019 between Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick to advance SMRs in Canada. Alberta signed that same MOU in 2021.
According to Saskatchewan Crown Investments Corporation Minister Dustin Duncan, “This is now specific to working directly with Alberta, as we’re doing our work in evaluating the potential of deploying an SMR here in Saskatchewan. There’s a lot of work that needs to go on behind the scenes in terms of impact assessment work, regulatory work with the federal government, working with communities, working with the company that is in going to be building the technology, as well as ensuring that we have a trained workforce, a supply chain in Saskatchewan that could be a part of the buildout of potentially nuclear in Saskatchewan.” He added that Alberta and Saskatchewan “have an interest in what Saskatchewan has been doing over the last number of years of pursuing SMRs, and so this just formalises that relationship”.
He noted: “When we’re doing studies, when we’re doing evaluations of technology, when we’re doing work with understanding the regulatory environment, we’re going to be happy to share that work with Alberta because they have an interest in not only seeing Saskatchewan proceed down this road but potentially for Alberta as well.” Duncan also said there was a shared interest in industry on how to decarbonise industrial processes in Saskatchewan and Alberta and how to “work in a more collaborative nature to see whether or not there’s more that we can do on interconnection”.
Alberta Affordability & Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf pointed to “the very strong and long-lasting relationship with Saskatchewan and in the area of nuclear technology and development”. He added: “Saskatchewan is a leader in Canada, and Alberta is very proud to partner with Saskatchewan to learn from them and grow with them, as this will strengthen our electricity grids across borders.” He noted: “Reliability, sustainability and getting a carbon neutral future with a clear path forward based on technology and achievable realities is really important, so this is a very strong and important step forward for both of our provinces and very proud to work with Minister Duncan to get this MOU to this stage.”
Neudorf said Alberta has an ambitious goal of being carbon neutral by 2050 and “we think technology is the way to get there”. He added: “We’ve had limitations on what renewables are able to do and able to manage. We know that dispatchable baseload power is incredibly important to the reliability of our grid, and we think nuclear is a tremendous opportunity to make that happen in a realistic way. Small modular reactors have many advantages for our rural remote and heavy industry, and again working with Saskatchewan and the leadership they’ve shown on this file will strengthen both of our provinces.”
