As the Federally Imposed Carbon Tax has our Provincial Government all scrambling to come up with cleaner energy sources, one option is currently being discussed.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has said they have been discussing another power option with small modular reactors. Moe said talks around the technology are in the very early stages, “That’s not saying we’re moving ahead with that but we most certainly want to have the conversation around the clean supply of nuclear power in the province."

“We have the uranium. It’s incumbent on us to have the discussion as we ultimately add to our power generation capabilities in Estevan, either carbon capture and storage (CCS) or maybe something of this nature.” SaskPower plans on getting renewable power generation up to 50 percent by 2030, through expanding wind, solar and purchasing hydro from Manitoba.

Through an equivalency agreement with the federal government, Saskatchewan will be shutting down three coal power stations by 2030. The Shand Power Station near Estevan may be retrofitted with CCS in order to continue operating past 2030, but a decision is described as years away.

Boundary Dams 4 and 5, also near Estevan, will shut down in 2021 and 2024 respectively. As for location, Moe said it would make sense to set up near Estevan due to a large amount of transmission infrastructure that already exists.

This technology is still in the developmental phases. Last year, the New Brunswick government committed $10 million to research efforts.

Whether Saskatchewan moves forward with small modular reactors, expanded CCS or more natural gas, it will come as a cost.

The original CCS retrofit at Boundary Dam 3 carried a $1.4 billion price tag. Reports indicate second generation technology potentially used at Shand would be cheaper, but that would be a larger retrofit.