[foldedcornice]

It looks like there may be a typo with the estimated year of deployment in Ontario: the estimate is likely for 2028, not 2018.

The article was published on July 11, 2022, but opens with: "Saskatchewan and Ontario have each chosen GE-Hitachi as the supplier of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), which could be deployed in the Prairie province by the 2030s and in Ontario by 2018." Then, the article concludes with: "GEH and Ontario plan to construct up to four 300 MWe small module reactors, with the first coming online by 2028."

A separate source by The Canadian Press [0] also reflects an estimate of 2028 for Ontario: "The governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta have put forward a nuclear plan that they say will transition them toward cleaner energy. The provinces’ energy ministers agreed today to a joint plan for small modular reactors, with the first 300-megawatt plant to be built in Darlington, Ont., by 2028."

[0] https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/renewables/onta...

[QuadrupleA]

Article goes on to mention a "300W-solar power farm" (could power a desktop PC for $300M) and that the SMR could power "240,0000 homes".

[osuairt]

There is a push by conservative Canadian politicians in Ontario and Saskatchewan to use Uranium.

Saskatchewan wants to have a mining contract. While Doug Ford of Ontario, wants to maintain the energy monopoly in the province, and has actively torn down recently completed and functional wind farm projects.

I would gather that you will be hearing less about this after Doug Ford leaves.

[arcticbull]

While I also hate Ford and think he's a national embarrassment, 60% of Ontario's power comes from 3 nuclear power plants: Bruce, Darlington and Pickering. We're happy with our nuclear [1]. We'd be happy with wind and solar too - but substantially the entire Ontario grid is already renewable. 92% zero-carbon power. [2]

[1] https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canadians-support-gove...

[2] https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/pr...

[osuairt]

If you have to mine a finite Uranium resource from Saskatchewan, you do not have renewable energy.

https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/energy-sources...

[throwaway5959]

Ah yes, the old “what will we do in 10000 years when the Uranium runs out” problem.

[naasking]

Easily mined uranium will deplete in less than 100 years unless we start using breeder or thorium reactors that are more efficient in using up fuel.

[freeflight]

This is from the 2020 IAEA world's uranium resources report [0];

"Meeting high case demand requirements through 2040 would consume about 28% of the total 2019 identified resource base recoverable at a cost of < USD 130/kgU (USD 50/lb U3O8) and 87% of identified resources available at a cost of < USD 80/kgU (equivalent USD 30/lb U3O8)."

Apply some exponential growth to that, and those allegedly 10.000 years would actually end up looking more like not even 50 years.

[0] https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/worlds-uranium...

[rowanG077]

Is that really a problem? I mean technically any energy resource is finite/non-renewable due to second law of thermodynamics. That doesn't mean anything in practice.

[multiplegeorges]

If you have to contend with the expansion and death of the Sun, you do not have renewable energy.

[thereddaikon]

CTRL+F tells me Uranium isn't mentioned once in the page you linked. So where exactly does it prove that running out of Uranium is a problem?

[arcticbull]

It’s the four billion tons of uranium dissolved in the ocean and the trillion tons that replenish it as it’s removed that I was referring to. [1]

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/07/01/uranium-s...

[jopsen]

Just curious, how finite is it?

[tedk-42]

Agreed. Conflating nuclear with renewable into 'zero carbon' is wrong

[helloooooooo]

Darlington, Bruce and Pickering are reaching EoL and all three together supply 60% of Ontario’s electricity. How do you propose the province replace that amount of supply? The go with solar or wind would mean colossal investments in high tension transmission infrastructure, given the distributed nature of those power sources. We already have appropriate infrastructure in place for nuclear distribution; and the added benefit is that these SMRs can power northern regions as well when fully developped

[jeromegv]

Sure renewable energy is not everything, but spending 200 millions to tear down wind farms is also not how you get there https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-green-energ...

[bshipp]

As far as I understood it, they weren't torn down as much as the contract was cancelled and more weren't built.

I live in Windsor-Essex and still see new windmill projects going up all the time.

[pjc50]

That links says that (a) they were torn down, complete or incomplete, and (b) the company was paid a (huge!) contract break fee for this, as you would expect.

[ZeroGravitas]

Wind? The 24% hydro they have will help bridge demand and supply just as it does with nuclear today.

What do you see as the problem with that?

[multiplegeorges]

Last night, at peak, Ontario was generating ~140MW of wind power. Not bad.

Yesterday, all day without variation, Ontario was generating 9300-9600MW of nuclear power.

They aren't even in the same universe.

Source: https://www.ieso.ca/power-data

[ZeroGravitas]

Yeah, well if they shut down the nuclear plants, they'll be generating 0.

So they need to either build a lot of nuclear or build a lot of wind.

One of these is cheap, easy and fast, one is hard, expensive and slow.

3-4 years of German rollout of onshore wind would probably do the job.

[8bitsrule]

>not in the same universe

You're right, they aren't. Yes, thanks to decades of power-lobbying, viable wind and solar energy were both kept as low-key and forgettable as possible - and shut-down whenever possible. Apart from the vast sums of excessive money involved, lurking in the background was the fearful and sure knowledge that everyone, everwhere had potential and certain access to endless power ... without any constraints or arm-twisting politics.

Yes ... wind and solar ARE in a different universe ... one where all of humanity can and will survive and be free of the pernicious influence of centralized energy overlords, and their wars.

[bshipp]

I live in the hotbed of Ontario wind power, the intersection of Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex, and if all those windmills only account for 140MW I am very curious where the space would come from to even reach 1000MW. It already feels like they're everywhere.

[g8oz]

Colossal investment in transmission infrastructure would be a much better bet than investing in nuclear. It would pay off the way that colossal investments in highways, railroads and fiber have. Betting on nuclear is like choosing circuit switching over packet switching for your network. A fear driven anxiety about reliability that prevents people from understanding that a new way of doing things is possible.

[crypot]

Ontario’s Long-Term Energy Plan is counting on Bruce Power to provide a reliable and carbon-free source of affordable energy through 2064.

[ttul]

It’s okay. If the Progressive Conservatives wave their hands fast enough, they can solve this problem with wind power.

[pjc50]

> actively torn down recently completed and functional wind farm projects.

WTF?

[osuairt]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-green-energ...

[pjc50]

""For this government to rip up contracts and literally rip wind turbines out of the ground is a huge waste of money and makes absolutely no sense," said Green party Leader Mike Schreiner.""

Well, yes. $230m to prevent power being generated, either for ideological reasons or bribes.

[ipaddr]

At this point in time the cost is Wind: .75/kilowatt hour Nuclear: 0.05/kilowatt hour

Makes sense for a lot of reasons. The most costly energy was the fixed rate 75c per hour that was for ideological reasons going to transform Ontario into the solar power maker of the world. That went to California then and now China.

[jopsen]

9 wind turbines is nothing.

[Zachsa999]

I hear that the Nelson River in Manitoba has an extremely large capacity for power production.

Just saying.

[idiotsecant]

Building new dams in the west is almost entirely unfeasible. Too much environmental impact sensitivity (maybe a good thing) and NIMBYisim (not so good)

[Zachsa999]

Manitoba Hydro spends a lot of marketing money on making renewable resources attractive, specifically Hydro Generating Stations. Isn't the newest one from 2018?

[unsigner]

I have noticed that bad things' energy output is measured in watts, and good things' energy output is measured in "homes powered". It's probably taught in journalism school nowadays, it's pervasive.

[idiotsecant]

To be pedantic, neither energy output is measured in watts :P, one of them might have power measured in watts though.

[snewman]

Nice. Yeah, the numbers in press articles are basically always wrong; it's just a question of whether you can notice the error.

https://climateer.substack.com/p/numbers

[Hamuko]

A low-power desktop PC, since my not-massively-impressive gaming PC (i5-10600KF and RTX 3060) draws 330 W from the wall at peak.

[Semaphor]

Eh, my WQHD and FHD monitors, Ryzen 3600, RX 6600 tops out at about 320 W, so that should easily be below 300 for just the PC ;)

[mistrial9]

notice the "western investor" source ..