Will there be nuclear power plants in Saskatchewan?

Answer, by all accounts, is: it seems it's going to happen. While Saskatchewan until yesterday was focused exclusively on small modular reactors (SMR), the new agreement with Bruce Power confirms that the province is moving into a formal assessment of building large nuclear power plants.

SaskPower has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bruce Power, the operator of Canada's largest nuclear power plant, to leverage their multi-decade experience in managing large reactors. This move aligns with Saskatchewan's new energy strategy (Saskatchewan First Energy Security Strategy), which envisions nuclear energy as a key pillar for powering the mining and agricultural sectors.

Iako Saskatchewan nema operativnih nuklearki, planovi se sada razvijaju na dva koloseka:

• SMR project (Small Modular Reactors): SaskPower has already selected GE Hitachi BWRX-300 (a boiling-water reactor, a type of light-water reactor) as the primary technology, with plans for the first units to be operational by the mid-2030s near the town of Estevan.
• Large reactors: alongside the SMR project, evaluation of large technologies (such as Westinghouse's AP1000) begins to meet the huge demand for baseload power imposed by the industry

Why is collaboration with Bruce Power important?

Bruce Power operates eight reactors in Ontario and is currently implementing a massive refurbishment program, but also plans the "Bruce C" project adding another 4,800 megawatts. For Saskatchewan, this partnership means direct access to the know-how base for project development, licensing, and long-term safe operation, which dramatically reduces the risk for the province that is a "newcomer" in the nuclear sector.

But it also means something else: Bruce Power operates CANDU-design reactors, and in Canada itself there is already heated debate about future energy and nuclear power plants. Thus, part of the public asks why the proven, tested, and domestically developed technology, with which there is enormous experience and which is more than competitive, is being replaced by the relatively new technology BWRX-300 or Westinghouse's AP-1000.

Canada is, indeed, one of the very few countries that has developed a fully domestic reactor design that is technologically radically different from other reactor technologies that have been predominantly adopted worldwide. Namely, although today light-water reactors (usually those with water under pressure) are considered the most affordable and practical technology, Canada has from the very beginning of its nuclear program developed its own technological approach: it has developed reactors moderated by heavy water, which is an extremely potent moderator. Canadian CANDU (CANada – Deuterium – Uranium) therefore have an exceptionally good neutron economy, so as fuel they can use natural, unenriched uranium and they also have the ability to replace fuel without shutting down the reactor (online refueling), which makes them commercially very competitive.

The End of the Saskatchewan Paradox

And we add another, almost strange piece of information: Saskatchewan is a province that houses some of the world's largest uranium mines, but ironically for decades depended on fossil fuels. This, evidently, is going to change.