Province is starting to look to nuclear power to fill the void left by the departure of coal
It recently hosted an event in Saskatoon to help connect suppliers with those interested in developing the industry. Fabricia Piñeiro, Westinghouse’s vice-president of operating plant services in Canada, said the event was the largest one ever put on by the company and played into its optimism about nuclear power in the province.
“Certainly, we do see Saskatchewan has huge potential for nuclear deployment in the near future,” she said.
Piñeiro said these types of events are important in helping to bring together organizations that could play a role in the nuclear supply chain. Education is also an important component in places such as Saskatchewan, where there currently aren’t any nuclear power plants operating.
“We talk a lot about the qualification process and really what it takes for a supplier to become nuclear-qualified,” she said.
Westinghouse said over 180 people were in attendance from 116 companies representing a range of industries, from construction and engineering to environmental services.
“Our plan is to replace the coal with nuclear power,” he said.
Clewett said SaskPower is currently planning to deploy two reactors around Estevan in the province’s southeast, where the corporation already has a significant presence along with transmission lines and other vital infrastructure.
Saskpower is looking to deploy the GE BWRX 300 reactor, a small modular reactor (SMR). The technology is still being developed, with the first unit set to come online in Ontario in 2029 and Saskatchewan to follow in 2034.
“We wanted to be a follower, so we’re closely engaged with Ontario Power Generation and are watching and learning from their projects,” Clewett said.
SMRs are an attractive option for Saskatchewan because the provincial grid usually has a load of around 3,000 megawatts to 3,500 megawatts. Clewett said large nuclear reactors generally have a capacity of around 1,000 megawatts, which makes them impractical for the province’s grid.
“If you had 1,000 megawatts from a single load and then you lost that load for any reason, you would have a lot of challenges with stability on the grid,” he said.
Westinghouse is also working with partners to develop similar SMR technologies. Piñeiro said the company has been working with the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) to develop the eVinci Microreactor, which is much smaller than a conventional nuclear reactor and generates much less power.
“It’s equivalent to maybe 5,000 homes’ worth of electricity depending on where you are exactly and what the demand would be like,” she said.
Piñeiro said the hope is that once this technology is ready to be rolled out, it can be deployed in more isolated areas to replace gas-powered generation.
“It could be used for remote communities that are a lot of times actually using diesel power generators; it could also be used for remote mining applications,” she said.
While Westinghouse is working to develop technologies that could be deployed domestically in places such as Saskatchewan, its business is also growing outside Canada. Piñeiro said the company has been deploying its AP 1000 reactor internationally. This reactor is capable of generating 1,200 megawatts, which is enough to power around one million homes.
Currently, two of these reactors are in service in the United States while four are operating in China. Piñeiro said the company has agreements in place to construct more of these reactors in China as well as Bulgaria and Poland.
“We are currently exploring opportunities in many different countries,” she said.
The optimistic outlook for Westinghouse is one that is shared by Cameco, which owns 49 per cent of the company.
On a call with investors to discuss Cameco’s third-quarter results, chief financial officer Grant Isaac said Westinghouse’s business is expected to grow by six per cent to 10 per cent over the next five years, mainly due to new builds.
“We think that remains a very conservative outlook,” he said.