‘You better work on your Plan B’

New Brunswick MLAs hear from experts on small modular nuclear reactors

New Brunswick MLAs hear from experts on small modular nuclear reactors

The role small modular nuclear reactors should play in New Brunswick’s energy future is the subject of hearings this week at the legislature’s standing committee on climate change and environmental stewardship. 

MLAs are hearing from experts, Indigenous leaders, citizens group, environmental organizations and industry proponents. The SMR hearings began Tuesday, Feb 14 and wrap up today.

The Conservation Council’s Louise Comeau, director of climate solutions, and Moe Qureshi, manager of climate policy, present today at 1 p.m. You can watch the hearing live here. 

Comeau and Qureshi will tell legislators that New Brunswick needs a clean electricity strategy, not continued political interference into NB Power and risky, unproven SMR technology. Follow along to their presentation here.

On Day One of the hearings, Susan O’Donnell, spokesperson for the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB), told MLAs that the latest, peer-reviewed research into the viability of SMRs shows the technology will not be viable to communities transition from fossil fuels to non-polluting energy sources. 

“I hope you’re working on a Plan B,” O’Donnell told MLAs in her closing statement. 

“Our fear, actually, is that you’re going to stick with Plan A (small modular reactors) until 2029 when Belledune has to close, and then say, ‘Oh, hey, [the SMRs are] not working, we’re going to have to keep Belledune open.’ And so I’m just saying right now that we think, and a lot of people think, and the experts think, that it’s not going to work by 2029, not by 2030, not by a long shot. So you better work on your Plan B.”

Highlights from Day One

MLAs heard: 

• A small modular nuclear reactor, called the EBR II (Experimental Breeder Reactor II), operated successfully in a research laboratory in Idaho, U.S., from the 1960s to 1994.
• The EBR II, however, required near-weapon’s grade enriched uranium (65 per cent) to operate. Experts say uranium enriched more than 20 per cent can be weaponized in a relatively short time.
• Despite running successfully in a laboratory setting, no company has ever been able to build a viable commercial reactor. “It’s a huge leap from a laboratory reactor to a commercial reactor.” — Susan O’Donnell, CRED-NB.
• Sixteen nuclear field experts commissioned for a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine study, published in November 2022, concluded that there will be no commercial market for mass production of small modular nuclear reactors until 2050. 

Read the presentation from Susan O’Donnell, spokesperson, Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB) here.

Read the presentation from M.V. Ramana, professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at UBC, here. 

Stay tuned to this space for updates.

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