Canada Embraces Nuclear Energy Expansion to Lower Carbon Emissions

Source: Paul Vieira & Peter Landers · THE WALL STREET JOURNAL · | March 3, 2021

Government is encouraging the deployment of small modular reactors, making the country an exception in the developed world

Investors have been pouring more money than ever into renewable energies such as solar and wind. WSJ looks at how the pandemic, lower energy costs and global politics have driven the rally–and whether it can last. (Originally Published Dec. 31, 2020)

OTTAWA—In most developed nations, enthusiasm for expanding nuclear power is limited or nonexistent. One exception: Canada.

It is counting on nuclear power to be part of its clean-energy mix, which will play a prominent role in sharply reducing carbon emissions. On a per-capita basis, Canada’s carbon emissions are in line with the U.S. and greater than in Russia, China and India. 

“We don’t see a path where we reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 without nuclear,” said Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s natural-resources minister. “It is proven, it is tested and it is safe. We are good at it.”

Canada ranks sixth among countries in terms of nuclear-power generation, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Energy Institute. Electricity produced from 19 nuclear reactors accounts for 15% of the country’s energy supply. In Ontario, an economic engine that is bigger in area than the state of Texas, nuclear power is the top source of electricity, at 60%.