To achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 | Climate salvation will go through nuclear power, according to Ottawa

(Ottawa) The Trudeau government believes that more than ever, nuclear energy must be given priority in the country if Canada wants to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Ottawa intends to step on the accelerator in order to facilitate the construction of nuclear reactors in the provinces which wish to do so to meet the growing demand for clean energy resulting from the electrification of transport and the increase in population.

New projects, ranging from small modular reactors (SMRs) to nuclear power plants like the CANDU reactor (MONARK), are expected to come into being starting in 2028 and will continue until 2036, according to projections from mandarins at the Office of the Privy Council.

Two sites have even been identified for the storage of radioactive waste. These two potential sites are located in Ontario: Ignace-Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, in northern Ontario, and South Bruce-Saugeen Ojibway Nation, in southern Ontario. In principle, the Nuclear Waste Management Company must choose a site this year.

“Nuclear energy is an important and viable option for Canada to achieve carbon-neutral electricity production. Currently, it provides approximately 15% of zero-emission electricity production and represents more or less 50% of the electricity produced in Ontario,” said a briefing note to the Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau who reveals in detail Ottawa’s ambitions in this matter.

In this note dated September 29, 2023, that The Press obtained under the Access to Information Actsenior officials say the federal government will inevitably have to loosen its purse strings to support certain projects.

This is already the case. In October 2022, the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) entered into an agreement with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) under which it committed to investing $970 million in the first small modular reactor in Canada. OPG intends to build the 300-megawatt small modular reactor alongside its existing Darlington nuclear power plant, which produces 3,500 megawatts and is located in Clarington, Ontario.

In February, the federal government also announced a $50 million investment in the Bruce Generating Station expansion project, which is located on the east coast of Lake Huron.

“To achieve its economic and climate goals, Canada will need to significantly expand its electricity network. It must take into account all non-emitting energy sources, including nuclear, to meet this colossal challenge,” argued the federal Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, at the end of a visit to Washington where this file was discussed a few months ago.

Acceleration in Ontario

At COP28, which took place in December in Dubai, Canada signed, with around twenty other countries, a declaration in which the signatories committed to tripling their nuclear production capacity by 2050, emphasizing that this energy source is essential to achieve carbon neutrality within the next 26 years.

If Ontario supports this option with enthusiasm, and to a lesser extent Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the situation is quite different in Quebec, which, for the moment , rules out the idea of ​​using nuclear energy to meet an increase in electricity demand.

Radio-Canada reported this week that we are witnessing a true “renaissance” of nuclear power in Ontario. In addition to refurbishing four of the six reactors at the Pickering nuclear power plant at a cost of several billion dollars, Doug Ford’s government wants to become the North American leader in small modular reactors. This energy source is essential if the province wants to double its electricity production by 2050 to meet demand.

Three reasons are pushing the Ford government to accelerate: population growth, the electrification of transportation and the arrival of new businesses demanding a reliable source of energy at a predictable cost.

“Ontario is experiencing tremendous growth. “Businesses are starting to come back to Ontario after leaving because the price of electricity was too unpredictable and too high,” Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith said in an interview with Radio-Canada.

In the spring of 2023, German auto giant Volkswagen announced that it had chosen to locate its multi-billion dollar electric vehicle battery mega-factory in St. Thomas, Ontario. The Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy of Quebec, Pierre Fitzgibbon, subsequently indicated that the province was outplayed by Ontario, among others, because Quebec was incapable to guarantee it the approximately 800 megawatts required within seven years. “If we had had electric current, we would have been there, but we did not have it,” Mr. Fitzgibbon said at the time.

Quebec, however, managed to bring to fruition an equally important project, that of the Northvolt battery factory, in Montérégie, last September.

The fact remains that Minister Fitzgibbon has stated several times since then that the Quebec government must evaluate all energy sources, including nuclear, to meet the increase in demand. But Prime Minister François Legault has already made it known that nuclear power is not popular with the population of Quebec. “For the moment, we’re not touching that,” he said in September while visiting New York.

With the collaboration of William Leclerc, The Press