If Canada wants to go green, it's time for Canada to go nuclear. In CANDU, we have the power to do it, so to speak..CANDU (Canadian Deuterium Uranium) technology dates back to 1954, but it remains today as Canada’s best power generation technology for the future. It’s near-perfect operating record, together with the fact that more than 96% of the engineering and manufacturing supply chain is Canadian owned and operated, are two principal reasons for a renewed commitment to advance CANDU power plants across Canada..In my November 2022 article titled 'EV cars will crash the grid,' I highlighted evidence suggesting Canada needs to more than double its power generation and transmission infrastructure over the next 25 years, in order to avoid rolling blackouts..To put this 25-year power generation build-out into perspective, Canada would require:.• 40,000 x 5 MW-sized wind turbines..• 115 x 1100 MW-sized large hydro-electric reservoirs similar in capacity to BC Hydro’s Site C project; or.• 114 x 1000 MW-sized large nuclear reactors; or.• Just 19 sites the size of Bruce Power (6400 MW) in Ontario. .Happily, the CANDU refurbishments at Bruce, Darlington and most likely Pickering Nuclear stations are extending the lifetimes of these CANDU facilities by a further 30-40 years..When we consider the fact that more than 70% of the supply chain associated with wind and solar PV power is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) NetZero Cartel, together with evidence showing that the West is rapidly moving towards direct military engagement with China in the Indo-Pacific region, any further investment in China’s weather dependent energy technology space acts to only further erode Canada’s national security..A recent Angus Reid poll shows a strong political divide on the topic of expanding CANDU and other nuclear power infrastructure, versus China-dominated wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. This poll shows that 73% of Conservative Canadian voters strongly favour expanding our nuclear power, while only 20% to 53% of BQ, NDP and LPC voters share similar sentiments. Angus Reid did highlight though that events in Europe have generated a year-over-year bipartisan increase in the support of expanding Canada’s nuclear power infrastructure. Logically, this trend should increase over the next few years, as global supply chains continue to balkanize and as national security issues continue to gain precedence..From my perspective as an energy and environment scientist, here are some of the attributes of our national CANDU technology that warrant continued investment and increased political commitment to growing this power generation capacity in Canada..Dr Chris Keefer’s Parliamentary petition to have CANDU technology granted applicability for the federal 30% clean technology investment taxation credit, claims that as all the intellectual property and supply chain reside within Canada, every $1 invested in CANDU here in Canada creates returns more than $1.40. (Please sign this petition.) This is the very definition of energy security..Canada’s CANDU power fleet is already responsible for 15% of our national power generation and its expansion in Ontario over the past 20 years is responsible for backfilling more than 90% of the loss of base load power generation associated with retiring Ontario coal power plants. And a lifecycle analysis of the CO2 emissions associated with CANDU and its supply chain, shows that its emission intensity is half that of wind and solar PV technologies. In terms of compliance to federal guidelines on CO2 emissions, no technology available more potential to reduce CO2 emissions per unit of energy produced.
