Cameco aims to be the fuel supplier of choice for small modular reactors

Saskatoon-based Cameco has recently signed several memorandum of understandings to collaborate on the potential deployment of small modular reactors.

Cameco believes the future of nuclear energy is small modular reactors (SMR). So do federal and provincial governments and some Indigenous communities.

The Saskatoon-based company, one of the world’s largest uranium miners, has recently signed several memorandums of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the potential deployment of SMRs.

The company believes nuclear power will play a role in shifting to zero-carbon energy and it aims to become the fuel supplier of choice for SMRs.

“We’re really excited about the prospect that’s represented in terms of market growth in the small modular reactor and advanced reactor market,” said Jeff Hryhoriw, Cameco’s director of government relations and communications.

“We think that holds a lot of promise for expanding nuclear energy in countries that currently have nuclear power like Canada, and even into some new markets that would like to explore nuclear power as a carbon-free baseload alternative.”

However, opponents of SMRs have concerns and say the deployment of SMRs will be too slow to deal with climate change.

“It’s going to be a decade or more before we know whether the small modular reactors are going to be commercially feasible, and it’ll be more than a decade before they’ll be in a position to make any impact on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ann Coxworth, who sits on the board of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society.

“So the climate really just can’t wait.”