1. A generational opportunity
The ongoing trade and investment war with the United States has spurred a significant federal investment in large infrastructure projects, including nuclear, to support Canadian job growth in strategic sectors.
To achieve maximum benefit to Canadians from public funds spent on expanding nuclear power, it is essential to look closer at the ownership of nuclear power options.
2. Canadian Nuclear
CANDU is Canadian technology and a Canadian supply chain from design, fuel, build, and operate.
It is a unique type of pressurized heavy water reactor using un-enriched Uranium as fuel. Unifor members mine and refine the Uranium, design, engineer, and support the maintenance the reactors, and make the high-quality metal tubing and parts, and package the Uranium into fuel rods.
Today CANDU is owned by the Canadian company AtkinsRealis.
Canada has a long history in domestic nuclear power generation. The Canadian government invented its own technology branded "CANDU" and has successfully implemented the technology in Canada (Bruce, Darlington, Pickering, and Point Lepreau) and exported that production around the world.
However, in the current rush to expand Canada's current nuclear capacity, politicians have been duped by promises of "new" and "modern" technology from American firms. In doing so, poor decisions are being made that threaten to undo Canada's nuclear legacy and international leadership.
3. Buying U.S. nuclear will have consequences
At this point, there is a threat that new expansions of nuclear capacity in Ontario could be American technology (Westinghouse, GE-Hitachi). Alberta and Saskatchewan have signed MOUs with U.S. firms to use American technology and fuel.
Technology and Intellectual Property
Moving to reactors owned by American-based companies means the loss of Canadian IP, but also creates a need to rent American technical expertise.
This creates a Canadian sovereignty issue over the technical capacity to sustain our energy systems decades into the future as we will become dependent on Americans approving our use/rent of their technology and expertise to repair and run that technology.
Furthermore, relying on American/foreign labour to manage our nuclear infrastructure means that we are no longer fully in control over security clearance processes, which falls to the whims of the American companies that rent us labour and technical expertise.
Nuclear Fuel
Fuel supplies for the announced SMR GE-Hitachi reactors at Darlington and for the potential deployment of Westinghouse AP-1000 are not produced in Canada. While parts of the AP1000 is classified as "Canadian owned" its fuel comes from the USA and other countries, including Russia.
4. Acting in the long-term interest of Canadians
Energy developments, especially in the nuclear sector, are critical infrastructure. Building critical infrastructure should not be limited by export control restrictions of another country.
Even beyond the refurbishments and expansion described above, there are outsourcing problems in the current CANDU supply chain: Canadian nuclear suppliers are engaged in the outsourcing of core nuclear engineering work to contracting firms outside of Canada. This has strategic, technical, and security risks to sustaining our technical knowledge capacity. This risk will only increase if we increase nuclear technology reliance on foreign firms.
Procurement programs should ensure companies maintain services (engineering and science) staff in Canada. Strategic parts of the nuclear sectors such as reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics, materials science, safety analysis, licensing documentation, fuel design, and operator training should only be done in Canada.
5. CANDU can do it
To reach our nuclear energy goals, Unifor outlines the following principles:
- Maintain and grow domestic production, supply chains, and procurement of nuclear power and isotopes to ensure Canada's energy security and maximize economic benefits of public spending on nuclear energy;
- Ensure Canada's nuclear investments meet our future energy needs while showcasing Canadian-developed, Canadian built technology as world leading;
- Integrate nuclear energy production and inputs with critical mineral production strategies for a comprehensive resource management approach;
- Ensure government procurement is focused on made, designed, and developed in Canada CANDU nuclear technology that is safe, reliable, and built end-to-end entirely on a secure Canadian supply chain;
- Ensure outreach to the public on nuclear energy includes generation, byproduct creation such as nuclear isotopes, planning, and facility management and safety explanations; and
- Ensure increased funding is allocated to support nuclear energy research including long-term storage.
