SaskPower and GEH will collaborate on project planning and facilitate the sharing of expertise related to the design, fuel sourcing and fabrication of GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor. The companies will also support workforce and supply chain planning needed for a Saskatchewan-based SMR deployment. 

“Gaining detailed technical specifications, requirements and designs to the BWRX-300 is necessary for our planning work and license applications,” said Rupen Pandya, SaskPower President and CEO. “Leveraging experience and expertise from our colleagues in the nuclear industry is an important part of our planning work.” 

In June 2022, SaskPower selected the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 as the technology to be used in its SMR development work. The BWRX-300 was also selected by Ontario Power Generation for its Darlington New Nuclear Project and is a boiling water reactor that produces about 300 MW from one single unit. This innovative SMR is based on similar large-scale nuclear power plants that have been in operation globally for decades.

OPG aims to build North America’s first SMR at its Darlington New Nuclear site. OPG expects the first of four SMRs would be completed there by the end of 2028 and online by 2030. Subject to Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulatory approvals, the additional SMRs could come online between 2034 and 2036. The four units once deployed would produce a total 1,200 MW of electricity.

In 2023, the Canadian government approved up to $74 million in federal funding for small modular reactor (SMR) development in Saskatchewan, to be led by SaskPower. The funding will support pre-engineering work and technical and regulatory studies, environmental assessments and community and Indigenous engagement.

Earlier in 2023, SaskPower and OPG renewed an agreement to continue working together on new nuclear development, including SMRs. The utilities would provide mutual support by sharing lessons learned, technical resources and expertise, best practices and operating experience. SaskPower and OPG would consider future collaboration in other areas, including project development and plant operations.

Net Zero Nuclear aims to bring together political leaders and industry to engage in data-driven, actionable, solutions-focused dialogue to enable the rapid expansion of the global nuclear fleet and the acceleration of research and development into emerging nuclear technologies.

The initiative was launched by the World Nuclear Association and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation at the World Nuclear Symposium in London earlier this month. GE Hitachi joins the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as a partner.

“I’m very pleased to see the launch of Net Zero Nuclear, a pioneering platform for countries and companies that want to try to accelerate the clean energy transition. And I’m proud to see GE joining from the start of all of this,” said U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in remarks to open the Atlantic Council’s Nuclear Energy Policy Summit 2023.

GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation reactor with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH’s ESBWR boiling water reactor. It is currently undergoing a CNSC pre-licensing Vendor Design Review.

The BWRX-300 leverages a unique combination of existing fuel that is currently used in operating reactors (and does not require HALEU), plant simplifications, proven components and a design based on already licensed reactor technology.  

GE Vernova will lead the pre-feasibility assessment under an award announced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional DAC Hubs program. The funding comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). GE will enter award negotiations with DOE to finalize the terms and the scope of the study.  

As part of the proposed study, researchers will evaluate using GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) to power the DAC system.

“Integrating the heat and power from the 300 MWe BWRX-300 with the DAC system has the potential to achieve the lowest cost of carbon removal,” said GE Vernova in a statement.

Direct air capture (DAC) technologies extract CO2 directly from the atmosphere at any location after which the carbon can be stored in geological foundations or used in a variety of applications such as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuels.

DAC is unlike carbon capture which is usually carried out at the point of emissions.

According to the International Energy Agency, DAC is significantly more expensive than carbon capture and is a highly energy-intensive process. A great deal of land and water are also required for DAC projects.

When completed, GE Vernova said the project could remove 1 million tons of CO2 from the air per year.

GE Vernova is also part of two other teams selected for award negotiations that support early-stage project development of DAC regional hubs. The two other projects GE Vernova will be partnering on will be led by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois).

These projects intend to promote technologies that can capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it underground in the Tuscaloosa Group in Florida and in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado.

Both studies aim to develop relationships between DAC technology providers, green energy providers, CO2 transportation networks and companies seeking to store CO2 underground.

GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 is the 10th evolution of GE’s boiling water reactor design. The 300 MW water-cooled reactor design is based on the company’s Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR), which is already licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

This funding will support pre-engineering work and technical and regulatory studies, environmental assessments and community and Indigenous engagement.

SaskPower has selected the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 for potential deployment in Saskatchewan in the mid-2030s. The provincial power utility anticipates construction of its first SMR to begin as early as 2030, with a targeted in-service date of 2034. Additional facilities could begin construction as early as 2034.

Canada has been financially supportive of deploying new nuclear as it works to significantly increase carbon-free power.

The government of Ontario and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are planning to build a total of four SMRs at the Darlington nuclear site in the province, with the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 as the chosen technology. OPG is partnering with GEH, SNC-Lavalin and Aecon on the first reactor, with construction expected complete by 2028.

The four units once deployed would produce a total 1,200 MW of electricity.

Canada is targeting a net-zero electric grid by 2035.

In 2020, SaskPower and Ontario Power Generation commissioned the Conference Board of Canada to study the potential economic opportunity and job creation related to the development of small modular reactors in both provinces.

Up to $50 million of the $74 million allocated to SaskPower comes from NRCan’s Electricity Predevelopment Program — a $250-million program to support pre-development activities of clean electricity projects of national significance.

The remaining more than $24 million has been committed to the Government of Saskatchewan from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Future Electricity Fund. This program returns pollution pricing proceeds to support clean energy projects, energy-efficient technologies and other initiatives aimed at helping Canada achieve a net-zero-emissions economy by 2050.

As part of the utility’s planning and regulatory work, SaskPower previously identified two areas to potentially site SMRs The Estevan study area includes the areas around Boundary/Rafferty Dam and around the Grant Devine Dam. The Elbow study area includes an area around Lake Diefenbaker, from Gardiner Dam to the Diefenbaker Dam.

The Estevan site is close to the Boundary Dam power station, which is Saskatchewan’s largest coal-fired power plant. The Gardiner Dam site plays host to around 186 MW of hydropower generating capacity.

Poland is turning toward renewable and noncarbon energy, away from its past reliance on its own coal. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has also accelerated Poland’s drive to cut its dependence on Russian oil and gas.

In a ceremony at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Warsaw, the U.S. EXIM Bank signed a letter of interest in lending up to $3 billion and the U.S International Development Finance Corporation signed a letter of interest to lend up to $1 billion to the ORLEN Synthos Green Energy project for developing some 20 small BWRX-300 modular reactors designed by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.

U.S. Ambassador Mark Brzezinski stressed that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine almost 14 months ago reinforced the need to turn toward safe and reliable energy sources.

At a later news conference, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland needed a “cheap, clean and reliable energy source” like the SMR reactors, which will produce emission-free energy and be a driving force for the economy for decades to come.

Coal mining is among Poland’s largest employers, providing some 80,000 jobs and supplying some 70% of the country’s energy, and Morawiecki said that industry will continue to guarantee power security. He stressed, however, that global climate concerns and European Union regulations are calling for a shift to renewable and clean energy, which the nuclear reactors plan is helping to advance.

PKN ORLEN president, Daniel Obajtek said Poland’s first BWRX-300 reactor should be launched in 2029 and will be the world’s second, after a similar one becomes operational in Darlington, Canada.

He stressed that “there is no stopping of energy transformation” in the world and the oil and gas giant — 49.9% owned by the Polish state — is planning 320 billion zlotys ($75 billion) of investments.

In February, Poland’s government and the U.S. Westinghouse Electric Company signed a deal for pre-design cooperation on the central European nation’s first large nuclear power plant, using the American company’s technology. Construction on the plant is to begin in 2026 and it should start supplying the energy grid in 2032.