Feds invest $20 million to advance regulatory approval for small nuclear power plants

The federal government is spending $20 million to help an Ontario nuclear power company meet the regulatory requirements needed to bring small modular reactor (SMR) technology to market. Commercial deployment of the new power plants, which can be shipped to remote locations such as mine sites and oil sands, is expected before the end of the decade.

The Strategic Innovation Fund investment—its first in SMRs—will allow Oakville, Ontario-based Terrestrial Energy to complete a pre-licensing milestone with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The October 15 announcement comes just one week after Ontario Power Generation announced it will advance work with Terrestrial Energy and two other grid-scale SMR developers as part of the utility’s goal to deploy SMRs—nuclear reactors that are smaller than conventional nuclear reactors, and able to be built in a factory and shipped by trucks or ships.

The company’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) power plant will provide high-efficiency on-grid electricity generation. Its high-temperature operation also has other industry uses, such as zero-carbon hydrogen production, which the government sees helping Canada achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The pre-licensing assessment will allow the regulator to provide performance statements about Terrestrial Energy’s design, indicating that it sees no barriers to the company’s ability to license the technology, Terrestrial Energy’s CFO Canon Bryan told Research Money.

“This may not sound like much, but in the nuclear energy world, it is a massively commercially transformative moment,” he says, as electric utility companies that might want to partner with Terrestrial Energy would have more confidence in the technology. “And it could massively mitigate regulatory risk.”

The $20 million from SIF is part of a total $68.9-million, 2.5-year project for developing the IMSR technology, and Terrestrial Energy is putting another $91.5 million into R&D. The company has also committed to maintain 186 jobs and create 52 co-op positions nationally.

IMSR uses molten salt instead of water as both coolant and fuel, which increases safety while reducing costs and improving efficiency, the company states on its website. The reactors can also be built in four years to produce electricity or industrial heat at prices competitive with fossil fuels.

Federal funding boost of confidence for small nuclear

Canada has made nuclear energy a core part of its clean energy strategy. In a news release, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan cited an International Energy Agency report to the Canadian Press, which said “achieving our target of net-zero emissions without nuclear energy will take a lot longer, with a great risk of failure.”

While smaller nuclear systems like Terrestrial Energy are more likely to attract private capital than larger conventional nuclear systems, Bryan says government investments can put nuclear energy on the radar of otherwise risk-averse investors.

“To help private capital make this transition, it would certainly, certainly be very helpful to have the government providing their endorsement, and adding credibility to the technology as a whole,” he says.

SMRs have faced criticism from the Canadian public. Safety and waste management were key concerns identified in the SMR Roadmap report — a pan-Canadian engagement program led by provincial governments, municipalities and utilities groups to understand Canadian priorities for the nuclear industry in Canada.

Bryan notes the capacity of regulators in helping ensure the safety of these systems. “It's our job as a vendor to design a safe system, but the regulator is the ultimate arbiter of that safety,” he says. “They do thousands upon thousands of hours of work and analysis of anybody’s designs to ensure that.”

Former UK minister joins advisory board

Just days following the SIF news, Terrestrial Energy announced that it had appointed the UK’s former minister for Climate Change to its advisory board as the company seeks to deepen its commercial engagements with the UK and align with its industrial and climate change policy. Other advisory board members include former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former US Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz.

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