It would be less expensive to produce power in remote areas and could be part of the clean energy mix in Saskatchewan. That’s the idea behind Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Ontario teaming up to explore small nuclear reactors as an alternative power source.

The executive director of the University of Saskatchewan’s Fedoruk Centre for Nuclear Power, John Root, explains that there are small nuclear reactors right now in submarines, but none for public power generation. The nuclear reactors are all much larger, but aren’t economically feasible, which is where developing smaller ones comes in.

Root says it’s expensive to run wires to Saskatchewan’s north to connect to the grid, with a generating station where you have to ship fuel up, whereas one modular reactor would produce all the power you need and the operating would be much less than diesel generation. And for on the grid locations, coal-fired heaters could be replaced with small reactors to add to the power mix.

The research is underway, but Root expects it will be about 10 years before these reactors become a reality.