Canadian Nuclear Industry Needed to Meet Climate Change Goals

OTTAWA (November 21, 2016) – The Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) welcomes the inclusion of nuclear energy in Canada’s Mid-Century Long-Term Low-Greenhouse Gas Development Strategy report, released Thursday, November 17, at the COP22 climate change summit.

“The Canadian nuclear industry is committed to working with the federal government to achieve ambitious climate change objectives,” said Dr. John Barrett, President and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association. “Not only does nuclear energy reduce emissions and protect the environment, it also creates an innovative and versatile economy. And given the opportunity, we can do even more in support of a low-carbon future.”

The report, which is submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), provides a basic framework regarding what challenges and opportunities exist in Canada to reduce deep emissions.

The report acknowledges that “more than 75% of Canada’s current electricity generation mix is non-emitting due to significant production from hydro and nuclear.”

It goes on to model different scenarios designed to achieve drastic GHG emission reductions by 2050, and in all cases, nuclear is a contributing energy source.

“In all of the low GHG economy modelling analyses, non-emitting sources such as hydro, nuclear, wind, and solar replace fossil fuel generation well before mid-century,” the report states.

The report also highlights the potential for innovative nuclear technologies such as CANDU reactors that use depleted uranium by-products and spent fuel from other reactors, as well as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), thorium-based technologies, and nuclear fusion.

This year’s report comes after last year’s COP21 launch of Mission Innovation, which saw 22 countries and the European Union agree to double their national investments in clean energy innovation over five years. The federal government confirmed that nuclear is an important part of Canada’s clean energy/clean tech profile by including it in its Mission Innovation initiative.

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For more information:

Paul Hebert
Director of Communications
613-237-4262
hebertp@cna.ca