Saint John Mayor Don Darling, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, Moltex Canada CEO Rory O'Sullivan, Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long, Beausejour MP Dominic LeBlanc, and UNB President Paul Mazerolle at Thursday's funding announcement.
The federal government has announced $56 million in funding for small nuclear reactors in New Brunswick.
More than $50 million will go toward Moltex Energy Canada, which has an office in Saint John, through the federal government and ACOA.
A further $5 million in funding through ACOA will be split, with most going to NB Power to prepare Point Lepreau for SMR deployment and $500,000 to UNB’s Centre for Nuclear Energy Research.
Dominic LeBlanc, federal minister of Intergovernmental Affairs said the money will go towards meeting Canada’s ‘ambitious’ climate change goals.
“Small modular reactors could represent the next great opportunity to take a bold step together, to meeting our goal of meeting net-zero emissions by 2050,” LeBlanc said.
The Beausejour MP made his remarks in an announcement at the Marco Polo cruise terminal in Saint John Thursday.
Premier Blaine Higgs, Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long, Saint John Mayor Don Darling, Moltex Canada CEO Rory O’Sullivan, and UNB President Paul Mazerolle also made remarks.
The feds view SMRs as having the opportunity to replace coal and fossil fuel power generation, which they hope will improve Canada’s industrial sectors.
Moltex Canada plans to develop the first 300 MW Stable Salt Reactor at Point Lepreau, which it says would bring carbon-free electricity by ‘the early 2030s.’
LeBlanc said the technology could effectively power around 210,000 homes.
“It aims to generate emissions-free energy through a process that recycles existing and used nuclear fuel, potentially offsetting up to 2.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases,” he said.
