The province’s electrical energy future took a big step forward Tuesday with the provincial decision to formally embrace nuclear power generation in a big way.
The premier has announced a decision to push forward on a plan to develop two large-scale nuclear power plants in the northwest part of the province while maintaining plans for small nuclear reactor development at Rafferty Dam in the southeast.
Saskatchewan’s story on nuclear power is not a short one, dating back to the days of John Diefenbaker who included plans for a reactor when greenlighting Gardiner Dam. A couple decades later, AECL established an operation in Saskatoon with the promise of developing a reactor for Saskatchewan. Neither of those came to pass.
But now, nuclear power is once again on the front burner, this time with more urgency as Saskatchewan looks for alternatives for its coal-fired legacy plants.
Ironically, throughout the better part of the last century Saskatchewan has been a key supplier of uranium that fuels reactors around the world. The logic of embracing the downstream output of a product you actually produce seems fairly straightforward.
— For more than 50 years, Paul Martin has specialized in coverage of the business and political scenes. His career has spanned radio, television and print and electronic media.
