Small Modular Reactors (SMRs): What they are and how they can help achieve Net Zero

Imagine driving towards a city with the sunlight reflecting on the scattered clouds and your windshield. As you drive through the city outskirts, you see a sleek 10-floor building, like something that could be the head office of a technology company. You drive to the city limit and see a sign that says, “Population 870,000”.

Later you learn that the 10-floor office building on the outskirts was in fact a nuclear plant that was powering that city. You learn that it was a Small Modular Reactor (SMR):

• Small – physically a fraction of the size of conventional nuclear power.
• Modular – making it possible for system and components to be manufactured in a factory, transported, and assembled at site.
• Reactor – using nuclear power to generate heat to produce low-carbon electricity.

So, the imaginary city I referenced earlier would need just a single 300-Megawatt (MW) SMR to power all its 300,000 homes. That city is imaginary for now…but SMRs are real, and this innovative technology may be on your horizon soon.

So, where can SMRs be deployed?

Three provinces in Canada have already started to seriously look into the development and deployment of SMRs to meet their growing electricity demands and help transition electricity production away from fossil fuels like coal, diesel and natural gas.

SMRs can be added to the electricity grid in three different ways. They can be:

• added to the Existing Electricity Grid, typically to serve a general population and/or or fully replace existing or aging power generation systems.
• built on the Edge of the Electricity Grid or in a heavily industrialized area; places that often rely on long transmission lines or independent power generation; or
• placed Off Grid, in remote communities or at a mine site.

Much smaller SMRs than the 300 MW plant powering our imaginary city can be deployed almost anywhere, especially when the electricity is needed quickly, for a long time and where other types of power generation cannot be built or do not make financial sense.

Is Canada ready SMRs?

Canada’s early adoption of SMRs would position the nation as a global nuclear technology hub. We’ve done this already with our previous CANDU reactors and we plan on being a world-leader in SMR technology going forward. We have a roadmap, and we are well on our way.

Up to four SMRs could be constructed at the Darlington Nuclear site in Ontario, and more are planned for Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. Some could be operational within the next 7 to 10 years.

And lastly, a new class of micro-SMRs of about 15 MW (or more) is being developed with a demonstration project in Chalk River, Ontario undergoing environmental assessment.

Contributions to Sustainability

With the climate crisis and sustainability being top-of-mind issues these days for many Canadians and people world-wide, SMRs can help achieve our vision for a resilient and sustainable future in many ways:

• SMRs can directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the electricity and industrial sectors in which they are adopted. They can help remote communities, and mine sites get away from diesel power generation.
• Manufacturing, packaging, and testing of SMR components are likely to be conducted off-site, thereby resulting in quicker and more efficient assembly on-site at location, reducing environmental emissions and disruption from construction activity.
• SMRs can be deployed in tandem with renewable energy technologies. SMRs can help produce biofuels, synthetic fuels, and hydrogen. These fuels are critical to decarbonizing transport (especially trucking, marine, air and rail) among other applications.
• SMRs are scalable and can thus adapt to power demands as community or industry needs change. Units can be added when demand increases or some of the modules not used when the demand decreases. The inherent flexibility of the technology means that they are responsive to uncertainty in the future.
• The modular nature of SMRs offer features such as compact and simplified design. There is the ability to maintain, repair, upgrade, replace, disassemble, or recycle a portion of a plant without having to overhaul the entire plant. Modularity reduces complexity.
• SMRs use standardized modules that can be sized for standard International Standards Organization (ISO) shipping containers. This means that they can be transported easily by ship, rail, or road, including ice roads.

Most importantly, their designs are being heavily scrutinized by competent regulators to ensure safe operations for decades to come.

What's next?

As we plan for the first SMR deployments within the next decade, the focus of many governments, utilities and technology vendors is turning to implementing licensing, environmental and permitting strategies; building localized and diverse supply chains; consulting with Indigenous Nations and potential host communities; and towards developing partnerships that can provide lasting benefits and enhanced sustainability.