Last fall, Saskatoon-based Cameco bought 49% of Westinghouse for a song. Westinghouse was in rough shape over delays on a pair of US reactors that took decades. But one is now operational, the second will be in months, and the war in Ukraine, cutting off of Russian gas, and “climate change” means the whole world is waking up to a nuclear renaissance, in a big way. (That includes Saskatchewan). On Thursday, Westinghouse publicly released its competitor in the 300 megawatt small modular reactor space. And they say it can be had for about a billion US??? On Wednesday, SaskPower’s minister told the legislature he’s thinking GE-Hitachi’s might cost us all-in around $4.5 billion CDN, for similar size reactor. But that would include grid and other items, too.
Anyhow, Cameco has long been supplier of nuclear fuel, but buying Westinghouse made it enormously more vertically integrated. All this new nuclear could have tremendous impact in Saskatchewan.
Does Canada not have a version of the US’ EPA? You know why it takes 40 years to get a power plant built?
It does. It’s called the Canada Energy Regulator based in Ottawa. It administers the Canadian federal process for environmental review of energy projects. It replaced the National Energy Board about five years ago after Justatwat’s Liberals decided they didn’t like the NEB’s review process being based in Calgary.
Canada’s environmental review process is worse than any other country in the world. In every other nation, including the United States, at the end of the process, as a proponent you get a licence to proceed. At the conclusion of the Canadian process you still have to get permission from the Minister to proceed. If you want someone to blame for this, it was set up this way to guarantee failure by that disgusting dead pig Lucien Bouchard when he was Mulroney’s Minister of the Environment in the late 1980s.
This is great news
It is indeed. Smaller reactors will allow smaller jurisdictions like Saskatchewan to accommodate nuclear power in their relatively small grids. Westinghouse has been in serious trouble since the early 1980s when its reactors started developing serious failures in their steam generators. (Most of the replacement work went to an Ontario company – Babcock & Wilcox in Cambridge. B&W also got most of the work in the United States for pressure vessel head replacement starting in the early 1990s.)
So Westinghouse has been looking for a competent, interested ownership group for about three decades. Cameco has already been a leader in one nuclear revival program – that of Ontario Hydro in forming Bruce Power. Cameco is a big company and very much knows what it’s doing in nuclear power.
All Canadian reactors have to be CANDU by law. How does that play in?
There is no such law. All Canadian reactors have to be approved for design, construction and operation by the CNSC. There is no law protecting CANDU. If you think there is, please point out the statute.
Today I read the nuclear safety and control act. Look at me I’m learning.
All reactors in operation in Canada are currently CANDU. But it doesn’t appear as requirement in the act.
I believe I repeated something in heard years ago.
They could call it the Camdu reactor.
I can see the liberals stonewalling nukes. From roadblocks to mining expansion to “public safety” concerns to endless aboriginal consultations to outright nationalization of the uranium industry, nuclear doesn’t fit into the business plan of the great reset.
Yes, when I lived in Alberta over 10 years ago, there were plans to build a small nuclear plant in the Peace River Country. The federal government had so many hoops to leap through, that the plan was abandoned. I have not kept up with the news since I left Alberta – would anyone know if small nuclear reactors would be on the table again in Alberta?
Very much so. Alberta is part of the cooperation with Ontario, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick to develop new nuclear power generation technology. Likely the first demonstration plant will be built at Darlington in Ontario. Alberta needs new power generation because of its strong population growth and because of the power needs of the oil sands, also growing.
The plan for new nuclear in Alberta 15 years ago was scrapped because Ed Stelmach, probably correctly, did not trust Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to build the project on time and schedule. AECL had built nothing in Canada since Point Lepreau was completed in New Brunswick in 1982. All the people at AECL who designed and built that plant are long since all retired or dead.
The Power needs of the Oil Sands…??
Uh, NOT.
Suncor: FT Hills Mine, Firebag SAGD & Base plant, CNRL, and pretty much all of the Major players ALL Have their own generating stations on site…
WE SELL power back to the grid. Not the other way round.
The oil sands are huge consumers of electricity and steam. At this time, they are all powered by gas-fired CTUs. More nuclear generated electricity equals more gas available to be sold to customers and less consumed in the production of oil.
I wonder how much the equivalent 500 windmills would cost?
And the footprint they take
There is no equivalent in windmills regardless of how many you build. Wind/solar cannot produce constant power at constant frequency and voltage. Wind cannot produce on windless days or days when there is too much wind. Solar cannot produce at night or on overcast days.
I was going to add, plus the cost of the Natural Gas plant to back up the windmills. That idiot Dalton McGuinty in Ontario spent a decade closing 6 coal plants, built 100s of windmills doubled the price of power, and built new gas plants for back up. All those billions to get to 8% renewable, 12% gas, and 80% hydro and nuclear.
That’s true enough as far as it goes. The 8% renewable was capacity only. If the Ontario grid could not use it, it was exported at a loss to the United States. In actual energy, it was much less than 8% supplying Ontario. But you are quite right; all those billions did essentially nothing. That’s why the Liberals in Ontario have been banished to non-party status, two elections running.
Serious question, what restricts Alberta and Saskatchewan from further processing of hydrocarbons. Lack of water? Distance to the end markets? Government of all tiers? Cant be related to energy
Good question. Transport is the answer. There is no ability to ship Alberta/Saskatchewan oil/gas to any destination other than the United States. So the problem is geography with Alberta/Saskatchewan being completely landlocked with no direct access to the sea.
Cgh.
You could not be more wrong my friend.
Proposed in 2014:
Build a ROW that is wide enough to build 2 -3 42″ x70 pipelines and a rail line NORTH…through NWT & the Yukon straight to Alaska. Connect to the Trans Alaskan Pipeline SYSTEM – Direct to VALDEZ: A yr round Ice free – DEEP Water port capable of handling VLCC & ULCC crude carriers.
We pay NWT & Yukon a stipend for utilizing a very small.portion of their territory while providing excellent paying work for their citizens during construction phase.
The Alaskans would love to see our product filli g tgeir pipeline system.
Once complete..,??? The world would be our oyster…
Whats needed. ? Some LEADERSHIP WITH VISION..!!
None of which exists. You seem to forget that northern pipelines prospects were shutdown by the McKenzie Valley Commission decades ago. And imagining that you can build a rail line over muskeg and permafrost is simply delusional.
Do you mean turning crude into gasoline, diesel, etc.?
I believe it’s cost of the refinery.
That, and uncertain political future. No oil company is going to invest billions into a refinery when the Commies within and Progs at Sodom on Rideau are inches away from shutting down the entire industry.
If you look closely, most refining around the world is located either immediately close to markets, or immediately close to ports which will then give access to markets. In Saskatchewan, the Coop refinery fills all our needs.
Beyond that, crude oil is a stable, single, relatively homogenous product, thus relatively easy to ship. It’s been in that form for over 100 million years in most cases, so that’s pretty stable. But as soon as you refine it, many of its products are no longer stable. Every hear of bad gas? You’ve got about six months to use gasoline. So you generally want it to become gasoline close to markets where they will be consumes. Also, now instead of one pipe to ship the product, you need pipes for diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, naphtha, condensates, asphaltines, bottoms, etc. Much, much more complicated to ship, store, handle.
Another way of thinking of it is this: it’s a lot easier for use to ship wheat than bread. Make sense?
Plus I think they are going to fewer mega refinery’s. Growing up in Mississauga Ontario, I lived 3 residential streets away from a Texaco refinery. I had to walk between the refinery operation and the tank farm to get to school. There was a Gulf refinery about 5 miles west, and a Petro Can maybe another 5 miles away in Oakville.
Hell, we used to have a Royalite refinery in Saskatoon. It was shut down in 1969 after being purchased by BA.
Makes very much sense. Part of the rationale for ‘Chemical Valley’ in the Sarnia area is the historical fact that the oil extraction industry was founded in central Lambton (not Pennsylvania). Also the ample fresh water of the great lakes and the fast flowing St Clair river to carry away mistakes were important factors.
A $billion bucks for a nuclear power plant is a bargain.
Of course, as Eskimo points out above, a regular ol’ vanilla nuclear power plant costs many billions just due to the delays and lawsuits at every step of the way.
Lessee here… $2 billion for land, labor, and materials to build a nuclear power plant and $38 billion for permits and fighting lawsuits. That sounds about right.
Dividend is 3 cents. Will it go up to 4 cents?