Friday, the federal government released its national Small Modular Reactor Action Plan. It outlined the ongoing efforts across Canada to develop and deploy SMRs and included more than 100 chapters from stakeholders across the country. The chapters outlined the plans and actions the stakeholders will be taking in support of deployment. 

One of the chapters is from SaskPower. In it, they detailed their plan to bring forward recommendations to proceed with the planning phase for an SMR starting in 2021. The work is needed to be able to put small modular reactors in place to generate power in Saskatchewan starting in the early 2030s. 

“The development of small modular reactors in Saskatchewan provides an exciting and unique opportunity for power generation in our province,” the Minister Responsible for SaskPower, Don Morgan, said in a written release. “SMRs have the potential to provide stable, secure baseload power while reducing our emissions.” 

The work on small modular reactors in the province is being done in collaboration with Ontario and New Brunswick. 

“We are looking forward to working with and learning from other utilities across Canada, like Ontario Power Generation, as they advance their first of its kind SMR project,” said Mike Marsh, the President and CEO of the Crown power utility. 

If the recommendation to start the SMR planning phase receives the necessary approvals, an eight-year planning phase will begin. Some of the steps that will be undertaken in the phase include site and technology selection; receiving a License to Prepare a Site from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission; starting the preparation of a License to Construct an SMR from the commission; the development, submission and approval of a federal impact assessment; and extensive engagement with the public, stakeholders and Indigenous groups. 

The national SMR action plan includes chapters from more than 100 groups, including province, territories, industry, vendors, academia and Indigenous organizations. You can read more on the SMR Action Plan here.