Four reactors could cost Saskatchewan $12 to $20 billion. The feds just gave us $74 million. But don’t worry, the money came from Guilbeault and Wilkinson. At least, those were the ministers quoted.
In the above, you will see that in 26 years, four months and 10 days, Saskatchewan could need as many as 27.5 nuclear reactors. At $3 to $5 billion a crack. Good luck, with that.
Also, Yukon might connect to the BC, and thereby national, electrical grid.
And Ford just milked the federal and Quebec EV cow for $1.2 billion
I found the recording of the SaskPower Minister Don Morgan in March, 2022. “A small reactor would cost in the range of $5 billion. So they’re, they’re certainly not inexpensive.” The Ontario minister said, “I’m going to suggest that the $5 billion number is quite high. However, because of the negotiations are continuing to while they’re continuing with OPG to GE Hitachi, on the SMR project, VW RX 300. We can’t put a dollar figure on it right now.”
Morgan then said, “You ask how much it would cost. We use the figure, which is a ballpark, and it’s likely a high figure. But no costing is done. No contracts have been let. The process will take place after the public engagement is taken, after the Indigenous engagement, after the site selection. Some of those project processes will work in tandem. And I would rather use a high figure and have it come in substantially lower, than the one where we have to say it’s this much higher or have an overrun in construction. We’ll be watching carefully, as Ontario goes ahead, to make sure that the processes that they follow work well here, and we’re able to they have a significant benefit already. They are already licensed for nuclear facility, we have to go through both provincial and federal licensing requirements. And we want to watch that as we as we go forward as we watch cost containment.”
The math seems way off. France has 56 reactors for a nation of 67 million. Each reactor serves a population of 1.2 million. Saskatchewan has a population of 1.2 million.
Either your math is wrong, the good people of Saskatchewan are using energy at a rate that is orders of magnitude larger than France’s, or the reactors being built in Saskatchewan are very small and remarkably expensive. This project seems to be designed not to produce energy but to convince people that nuclear is not feasible.
Most recent nuclear units to go online were Vogtle 3 and 4 in recent weeks. $17 Billion US over budget
https://apnews.com/article/georgia-nuclear-power-plant-vogtle-rates-costs-75c7a413cda3935dd551be9115e88a64
Currently, the owners are projected to pay $31 billion in capital and financing costs, Associated Press calculations show.
Also, Trans Mountain Expansion was supposed to cost around $5 billion. It’s now over $30 – 6x. Coastal GasLink is around 2.5x budget, at around $14 billion.
Closer to home, Boundary Dam 3, 9 years ago, cost $1.6 billion instead of $1.24 billion. And I’ve written about it extensively. Walked through it again a few weeks ago. That was simple compared to a greenfield nuclear plant, which will also require grid connection and transmission lines. None of this factors in the immense inflation in recent years from the Trudeau government. So I would go with Morgan’s number. And I am.
Saskatchewan has roughly 4500 MWe of installed capacity. 81% of which is produced using fossil fuels or 3645 MWe.
Replacing that with SMRs each producing 300MWe gives you about 12 reactors, with an estimate the 3 times as much electrical power will be required to replace every other energy source by 2035, which puts it at up to 36 reactors, even at $3 billion a piece, which is optimistic, you are looking at over $108 Billion, and thats not including all the court costs and “consultation” costs, and bribes for tribes.
National electric grid as a nation building moment. Pfffft. This nation has dissolved years ago at the direction of the Liberal Party of Canada by design. The time for building is over, the time of survival is upon us. We don’t share a similar culture. We’re a nation in name only. Even PM socks said it, that we are not really a nation , we’re a post national country. So don’t fall for the lies. Something else is behind this.
Love this line:
“In Yukon, all but four communities are connected to the same electricity network with about 93 per cent of electricity generated by hydro plants and wind and the remainder from diesel and liquefied natural gas.”
“93% hydro *and wind*”, you say? Interesting way to phrase that.
So…is it 90% hydro and 3% wind? Or 92% hydro and 1% wind?
Yeah, I caught that too. Word games.
% wind as a fraction of gross generation can be misleading. What matter is this: is wind there when you need it?
Here in the Pacific NW peak wind generation coincides with spring runoff. Hydro is forced to spill water so the wind turbines can generate and collect their subsidies. Later on during summer hot spells and winter cold snaps when the grid needs generation, wind generation can be nil for days on end. Fortunately, hydro can still cover the load, but the greens are hell bent upon removing the 4 dams on the Lower Snake River.
The link below tracks wind output here in the Pacific NW. Total installed wind nameplate capacity is ~2800 MW
https://transmission.bpa.gov/Business/Operations/Wind/baltwg.aspx
I’ve worked Nuclear for 28 yrs. Nothing EVER comes under budget or schedule. The Engineering is the worst in any industry. Not even close. OPG Sociopaths run the Projects. God help us if OPG is building ANYTHING. You could probably layoff all the Shitty Engineers named Mohammed or Bob and save a Billion.
OPG is a Woke Joke.
I doubt there has been a government contract that comes in on time or under budget anywhere, largely becuase even when they pick the lowest price, the contractors make so many RFC, and change orders they drive the costs up repeatedly, and no one is held responsible.
Then, JD, you can explain why OPG has come in on budget with all of its Darlington refits. Same for Bruce Power. What you don’t understand about contracting in the nuclear engineering world would fill several libraries. You can also explain why KHI has delivered its reactors to UAE ahead of schedule and under budget. You can also explain how Canadians built and delivered Qinshan Phase 3 100 days ahead of schedule and under budget in 2003.
Now get lost, liar.
Darlington is ongoing, get back to us in 2026 once they are all done
Bruce power, a private company, accepted the risk of any cost overruns in their project, rather than the government, and again the project is ongoing.
Not sure why KHI would be delivering reactors to the UAE, did you mean KEPCO?
And you are probably right, my sweeping generalization may have been too broad, since I don’t work in Nuclear, although I wasn’t specific to nuclear. I do work with government contracts, and every one seems to be behind and over budget, most often because the PM from the government side usually doesn’t have any concern about the money, because there is always more available, and PMs often don’t see the project to completion.
I do work in nuclear. OPG is half done with Darlington. The first two units were delivered on budget and schedule. If there are problems with a project, they show up at the beginning of a project. And note that this happened during the worst of Covid and it still didn’t break the budget or schedule.
Yes, sorry it was KEPCO. Korea Heavy Industries is a contractor to them for large components. They were the two companies who made Canada’s last CANDU project run ahead of schedule in 2003 at Qinshan.
Now as far as most government contracting goes, I agree with you. One only needs to look at the fiasco of the Ottawa LRT. At this point it will never run to its designed capacity. This failure is why former Mayor (Himbo) Watson fled the city in advance of the Provincial audit.
“I’ve worked Nuclear for 28 yrs.”
No you haven’t. You’re just another antinuclear liar.
“A small drop in a very large nuclear bucket”
// Four reactors could cost Saskatchewan $12 to $20 billion. The feds just gave us $74 million. //
And how much has the Saskatchewan gov’t spent so far?
// The Saskatchewan government is continuing its push for nuclear power, announcing Wednesday the establishment of an office to aid in the planning and development of small modular reactors in the province.
The government said its new nuclear secretariat will “co-ordinate nuclear policy and program work within the Climate Change & Adaptation Division in the Ministry of Environment.” […]
He said the office would likely have five staff but could not yet confirm its budget.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-nuclear-power-1.5625487 Jun 24, 2020
SaskPower posted several engineering positions to start leading the SMR efforts. Those job posts close right about now.