Alberta to hold nuclear power consultations as companies weigh opportunities

Lauren Krugel · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Jul 07, 2025 2:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Alberta plans to clasp nationalist consultations this autumn connected adding atomic powerfulness to the province's vigor mix, Premier Danielle Smith said Monday.

There person agelong been discussions astir gathering reactors successful Alberta — including ones that could powerfulness oilsands operations — but the state is presently reliant connected greenhouse-gas emitting earthy state for electricity.

Those conversations are to statesman anew astir September oregon October, erstwhile Chantelle de Jonge, parliamentary caput for affordability and utilities, plans to clasp atomic consultation sessions.

"We privation to speech to Albertans, due to the fact that it's caller for us," Smith told reporters alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford aft the 2 flipped pancakes astatine the Alberta premier's yearly Stampede breakfast.

"It's not caller for Ontario. Ontario gets 60 per cent of their power, I understand, connected their grid from atomic energy."

Small modular reactors astir apt marque the astir consciousness astatine distant agrarian sites that are dense vigor users, the premier added.

"Our oilsands projects are cleanable for it, if you tin get some the powerfulness and steam, powerfulness and heat."

Small modular reactors, oregon SMRs, make astir one-third of the powerfulness of accepted atomic plants and tin beryllium prefabricated elsewhere earlier being shipped to site.

Ontario Power Generation is gathering an SMR astatine its Darlington tract eastbound of Toronto, which would marque it the archetypal powerfulness institution successful North America to link specified a works to the grid. There are plans to physique 3 much SMR units there.

Ford said SMRs don't themselves employment a batch of radical erstwhile they're up and running, but they could alteration tech giants similar Amazon oregon Google to acceptable up store with electricity-hungry artificial quality information centres.

"And that's wherever the jobs are created due to the fact that they conscionable suck an endless magnitude of energy, these information centres," Ford told reporters.

"So that's the mode of the future. We're starring the satellite and we're gonna marque definite we stock that exertion close crossed the country."

At slightest 1 U.S. developer of tiny modular rectors has a keen oculus connected Alberta arsenic a maturation market.

"We person designed a tiny modular reactor that is perfectly suited for Alberta," Clay Sell, CEO of X-Energy Reactor Co., said successful an interrogation past month.

The occupation with accepted reactors has been their complexity, helium said connected the sidelines of the Global Energy Show successful Calgary.

"If you ever get 1 built, you'll tally it for the adjacent 80 years, but they're hard to physique and they're superior intensive to build," Sell said.

"So our full attack has been from the beginning: 'How bash we marque it simpler? How bash we marque it smaller? How bash we person less components?"'

X-Energy is pursuing opportunities to adhd powerfulness to Alberta's grid successful general, arsenic good arsenic to nexus to steam-assisted gravity drainage oilsands projects that propulsion bitumen from heavy underground done wells alternatively than excavation it.

"Our works is perfectly suited to execute that aforesaid ngo connected a tiny footprint," Sell said.

OPG is looking astatine utilizing X-Energy plants astatine concern sites successful Ontario.

There is simply a larger-scale works planned for northwestern Alberta that would person 2 twin Candu Monark nuclear reactors licensed for a maximum output of 4,800 megawatts.   

That would correspond up to a 4th of the province's existing energy generation.

"We initially thought, 'wow, that would swamp our powerfulness grid,"' Smith said.

"And present with each the demands for AI information centres, we're thinking, 'hmm, that's possibly precisely what we need."'

An archetypal task statement was filed successful April for the Peace River Nuclear Power Project, kicking disconnected the national reappraisal process.

In a code to the Global Energy Show successful June, Candu Energy elder vice-president Carl Marcotte said Alberta would payment from adding atomic to the mix.

"Whatever Albertans determine to build, you will. But you request a batch much powerfulness to bash it — reliable powerfulness that runs 24/7, powerfulness that works successful large upwind and erstwhile it's -45 C... and it indispensable beryllium affordable — it truly must," helium said.

"So yes, of people Alberta's abundant earthy state resources tin and should bash each that...But wouldn't it payment from having a powerful, cleaner, reliable state successful that growth, providing important baseload energy with debased emissions?"