Joseph Fournier has a PhD in chemical physics and has worked in the oil sands sector in both Alberta and Utah. He has a ranch near Stathmore, Alberta.
In my last article with Pipeline Online titled Saskatchewan Must Become Canada’s Nuclear Fuel Powerhouse or it will Wither on the Vine, I outlined how I believe Saskatchewan can and must turn its rapidly depleting uranium resource into a foundational value-added industry that will create immense economic value for centuries to come.
Here in this follow-up article, I will put further meat on the bones by highlighting an example of an integral technology concept that I believe has the potential to help Saskatchewan evolve into a global manufacturing hub for advanced nuclear fuels versus remaining stagnant as merely a supplier of uranium ore.
Right now, there is little to no true value-added processing in Saskatchewan of its precious uranium resource, and this must change.
A useful analogy from the oilpatch is building a refinery to create gasoline and diesel from raw oil. Just as we cannot run our cars and trucks on oil, so, too, almost all nuclear reactors cannot operate on raw uranium ore. This is increasingly the case with emerging micro (MMR) to small modular reactors (SMR), which require even more highly refined uranium fuels than large conventional nuclear reactors.
While large conventional nuclear reactors are best suited for large load centers, such as Vancouver or Calgary, SMRs and MMRs are intended to serve smaller more remote populations as we find in Saskatchewan and across Northern Canada.
As a Canadian energy scientist, it is my opinion that Saskatchewan can get double the value for its investments in nuclear over the coming decades by focusing Sask Power’s investment within a technology space called Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR).
FBRs not only produce reliable load following electricity, they also co-produce a critical ingredient used in the advanced nuclear fuels required by both MMRs and SMRs. This critical ingredient is called Transuranic (TRU) isotopes, which serve to ignite the heat generating nuclear fission reactions when mixed with raw uranium and placed inside MMR and SMR units.
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The basic idea is that a fleet of FBRs distributed across Saskatchewan will give rise to a value-added advanced fuels manufacturing sector that will combine the TRUs by-products of power generation, with raw uranium ore originating from mining operations in northern Saskatchewan.
Not only will this create more jobs, but will over the long term create greater energy security for both Saskatchewan and the rest of Canada, as we will not be dependent on foreign states for the fuel for our nuclear sector and the critical life support system that they power (a.k.a. the grid).
Luckily for SaskPower, New Brunswick is already leading the charge in this technology space through its commercial agreements in place with ARC Clean Technology and with Moltex Energy; two start-up next generation nuclear technology developers.
Of these two, it is ACR Clean Technology, which is advancing FBR technology in New Brunswick, with its commercial prototype slated for construction to commence shortly after the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) approves its June 2023 construction at the Point LePreau Nuclear Generating Station.
ARC is building on the decades of operational experience gained in United States on its core technology, and its first commercial prototype is a 10x scaled up version of the EBR-II experimental breeder reactor that operated for 30 years at the Argonne National Laboratory.
Two key features that makes ARC’s FBR uniquely suited to a made-in-Saskatchewan nuclear fuel manufacturing sector is its small size and the fact that this technology is designed to produce upwards of 30 per cent more TRUs than it consumes over the 20 year time frame between scheduled refuelings of its reactor.
Yes, you read that right. The ARC reactor will operate at full throttle for 20 years before requiring refueling.
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ARC’s liquid sodium cooled SMR has a 100 MWe power output that is 8x smaller than Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Darlington facility CANDU reactors and 3x smaller than the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR also being built at Darlington and chosen by SaskPower as a candidate technology vendor.
(Editor’s note: MWe stands for megawatts-electric, as opposed to megawatts-thermal. Thermal power plants such as coal, natural gas and nuclear produce multiple times more megawatts thermally than their electric output. The MWe is the electrical output while the MWth is the thermal output. The ratio between the two is the function of the plant’s efficiency. In nearly all discussion about power plant’s output in megawatts, the reference is to MWe)
I will emphasize that the 3x smaller power rating of the ARC FBR would provide Sask Power with significant siting flexibility on its proportionately smaller rated transmission network versus that managed by OPG, which would ultimately allow a greater number of plants being built across the province versus that would be built if Sask Power proceeds with a larger SMR like the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR.
Siting power plants in Saskatchewan is done considering distance to load centers and the regional capacity of transmission to deliver power.
Big power plants need big, expensive transmission.
Note that the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR is not an FBR, and thus will only be able to produce electricity and offer not long-term potential for a value-added nuclear fuel manufacturing hub being formed in the province.
I advocate that any investment by Sask Power in MMR or SMR technology that does not include FBR technology at its core, is a path towards energy dependence on other jurisdictions that have the capabilities of producing the highly refined nuclear fuels that these newer nuclear technologies require.
Saskatchewan has energy sovereignty in its massive coal reserves and this sovereignty must not be replaced with energy servitude and dependence.
I strongly recommend that SaskPower pick up the phone and call New Brunswick Power and collaborate with them.
For the record, I am not a public relations agent for the Canadian nuclear industry or for ACR Clean Technology. I am but a simple rancher and a Canadian energy advocate.
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