Canada to expedite approval of new nuclear projects, energy minister says

Nexgen Energy

29/02/2024 18:00

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      Existing sites to be assessed different from new ones -
minister
    

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      SMR's may not require repeated assessments - minister
    

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      IAA tweaks to be limited to court concerns - minister
    

  
    By Steve Scherer and Rod Nickel
       OTTAWA, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Canada will expedite the
approval process for new nuclear projects, but will not exclude
them from the federal environmental review as requested by the
province of Ontario, Energy and Natural Resources Minister
Jonathan Wilkinson said.  
    All new major projects in Canada, including nuclear
reactors, have to be reviewed under the Impact Assessment Act
(IAA), which the government has promised to revise this spring
after the Supreme Court last year ruled it overstepped into
provincial jurisdiction.
    Wilkinson said the legislative revisions to the IAA will be
limited to addressing the concerns of the court because if the
government does more than that, it would "have to open up large
scale consultations that will take significant time."
    "That being said, we do have some ideas that as to how we
can make the process more efficient and respond to the thoughts
and aspirations of the provinces," Wilkinson told Reuters in an
interview on Wednesday, adding that accelerating the process
will not come at the cost of addressing environmental concerns.
    Canada is the world's second-largest uranium producer, but
regulatory delays have resulted in miners like NexGen Energy
 NXE.TO  having to wait seven years and counting to build the
world's largest uranium mine in Saskatchewan.
    "It's a very long process," said NexGen CEO Leigh Curyer.
"Government and industry working together to bring these
projects online more expeditiously, that is absolutely key." 
    Nuclear energy enjoys broad public support, employing more
than 70,000 people, yet Canada's newest reactor came on line
more than two decades ago and no nuclear project has been
approved since the IAA was introduced in 2019.
    If the approval timeline is cut, it could help Liberal Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau's government meet its goals of reducing
the country's electricity grid to net-zero carbon emissions by
2035, part of an overall goal to net-zero by 2050.
    Climate groups and researchers have warned Canada risks
missing its climate targets.
    Nuclear expansion faces opposition, however, over charges it
already doesn't adequately review risks.
    The Sierra Club environmental group opposes development of
nuclear fuels because of dangerous waste, high cost and links to
weapons, said Sierra's Canada programs director Gretchen
Fitzgerald.
    "Canada again and again has failed to create valid
environmental assessment processes and arms-length regulation of
the nuclear power industry - leaving communities at risk,"
Fitzgerald said.
    
    OLD SITES VS NEW ONES
    Last month, Ontario said would start work to refurbish aging
nuclear reactors at Pickering, located about 45 km (28 miles)
east of Toronto, to extend production by 30 years. 
    Canada's 19 nuclear reactors produce 14% of the country's
electricity, and it has also exported technology for more than
30 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors worldwide.
    Now Ontario, which derives 50% of its power needs from
nuclear, wants to roll out more reactors in Canada's most
populous province.
    "We've been asking for nuclear to be exempted" from the IAA,
Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith told Reuters in an interview
this month.
    "If it's going to take another seven to 10 years to build" a
new nuclear station in Ontario, "then there's absolutely no way"
the federal government will hit its climate targets, Smith said.
    Wilkinson said he held a meeting late last year with
provincial energy ministers from Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta
and New Brunswick in part to discuss how to accelerate
assessments for new nuclear projects.
    Earlier on Thursday, Smith joined Wilkinson when he
announced the federal government would contribute up to C$50
million ($36.8 million) to Bruce Power to conduct consultations
and studies to add new nuclear reactors in Tiverton, Ontario.
Bruce Power's plant is already the second-biggest in the world.
    One of the ways to expedite the process is to treat
expansions of existing nuclear sites - brownfields - differently
from new facilities - greenfields - Wilkinson said. 
    Only Ontario and New Brunswick have existing reactors, so
provinces that have none would "probably require a bit more of
an assessment", he said.
    Ontario is developing what could be the first operating
small modular reactor (SMR) in the Western world by the end of
the decade, a technology that many countries are looking at as a
way of replacing coal-fired plants, Wilkinson said.
    Wilkinson said SMRs are "sort of carbon copies of each
other" and so should not require repetitive engineering
assessments.
    The government is also reviewing its entire regulatory
process to approve large industrial projects including nuclear
by eliminating overlaps between the provincial and federal 
assessments, he said. The details of that review, which will
have a particular impact on mining, will be released in the next
few months, Wilkinson said.
    Canada's deep experience with nuclear means it can "leverage
its experience and its technology to create jobs and economic
opportunity," Wilkinson added.
    ($1 = 1.3573 Canadian dollars)     

 (Reporting by Steve Scherer and Rod Nickel, additional
reporting by Nia Williams
Editing by Denny Thomas and Nick Zieminski)
 ((steve.scherer@thomsonreuters.com; +1-647-480-7889;))