Thank you very much.
Thank you for this opportunity to present to you today. My name is Shawn-Patrick Stensil. I'm a senior energy analyst with Greenpeace Canada. I also work as a radiation protection adviser for Greenpeace International and have done field work in such contaminated such as Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Palomares in Spain.
My presentation today will be in English. Although I have lost some of my French since I have been in Toronto, I will be pleased to answer your questions in French if you wish.
For the past month, you have been hearing from witnesses and seeking perspectives on the potential for innovation and economic opportunities in the nuclear sector. You've heard from a long line of industry witnesses who have claimed there is a huge potential for innovation and significant economic opportunities in the industry, but with more often than not a request for policy or financial support from the federal government. In my presentation today, perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm going to give you a skeptical view.
I've observed this industry, in Canada and internationally, for over 15 years now. I encourage the committee in its deliberations to also be skeptical about what you've heard, because, well, the nuclear industry has always been a “promising” industry. Its promises have caused the federal government to spend significant taxpayer dollars over the past several decades. In your deliberations I encourage you to weigh the future conditional promises you've heard over the past month against the industry's delivery in the past. This is necessary to not only protect taxpayers, but in light of climate change, we don't have the time or funds to let ourselves be distracted by false promises.
The challenges facing the Canadian nuclear industry are more or less the same as they've always been—specifically, technological complexity, escalating costs, and a lack of social acceptance. This lack of social acceptance is reasonable given that this industry has the capacity to displace large populations and burdens future generations with radioactive waste.
But today there's a new challenge: the competition. Rapid innovation and growth in the renewable and clean tech sector is making both existing and future conditional nuclear technologies irrelevant.
Today, I don't think there can be any credible assessment of the opportunities in the nuclear sector that doesn't consider the increasing challenge renewables and clean tech pose to the sector. So I have two main takeaway messages for the committee today. First, in light of the magnitude of past government support, the federal government should not provide any additional financial or significant policy support towards the development of new reactor designs, such as small modular reactors. Second, this committee should study innovation in the renewable and clean tech sector, and specifically whether the federal government and the Department of Natural Resources are properly tooled and focused to support the transition towards renewable-powered energy systems we're witnessing internationally.
I provided a briefing note to the committee. The first section of the briefing note is entitled “CANDU: A Technological Dead-End”. I think this is a good starting point for your deliberations. Despite significant policy support and $25 billion in taxpayer subsidies, the CANDU nuclear technology has failed to significantly innovate and evolve since the 1970s. The main focus of possible future reactor sales is the CANDU 6, a reactor that was first developed, with federal support, in the early 1970s.
Here I would like to point you to the story of the advanced CANDU reactor. Fifteen years ago, in front of this committee, we would have been discussing the promise of the advanced CANDU. At the time, parliamentarians and the public were being promised that the Canadian nuclear industry could design and build a cheaper and safer reactor that would find significant markets in both Canada and internationally. Believing these promises, Parliament approved over $400 million to support the design of this reactor that will never be built.
The Canadian nuclear industry was unable to innovate, overcome market barriers, and find markets. That $400 million was wasted and diverted from other energy options. There's a lesson in this. In short, despite what I would take as sincere promises, the Canadian nuclear industry was not able to innovate, reduce costs, increase safety, or develop viable new markets. That should be considered by this committee.
In fact, the Canadian nuclear industry is now in decline. Ontario, New Brunswick, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, who were all talking about building this advanced CANDU 10 years ago, have all abandoned those plans. By 2025, nine of Canada's 22 operating CANDUs will be closed due to the prohibitive cost of keeping them operating. That's almost half of the CANDU fleet in Canada, so the industry is clearly in decline.
I've raised the point about the failure of the advanced CANDU because the narrative that supported it gaining government support is very similar to what the committee has been hearing about small modular reactors. These are also promised to be cheaper, cleaner, and safer, but as I point out in the briefing note, the designs are purely conceptual at this point, and in most cases not much more than a power point presentation. There is no proven SMR design. Industry will probably look for government backstopping to build a demonstration plant. There's talk of doing this at Chalk River. I encourage this committee to advise against this.
This leads me to the major challenge I see for this industry and what should be the focus of this committee, in my view: the competition. While the Ontario government study on SMRs thought it would be possible to use small modular reactors in some communities to displace diesel, it did not consider other alternatives, such as renewable-based micro-grids, even though the technologies exist and are being used in other off-grid communities. This is an obvious blind spot in light of the declining cost of renewables and other clean technologies.
Put yourself in the shoes of a community that would be offered an SMR. Would you want to trust some big company from Toronto coming in with a nuclear reactor, given all the history that's surrounded it? There's not a market for these. Energy systems worldwide are being transformed by innovation in the clean tech and renewable sector. While nuclear costs have only ever risen, renewable costs are declining rapidly. That's called innovation. For this reason, more and more communities and countries are committing to go 100% renewable to fight climate change. In Canada, Vancouver, Victoria, and Oxford County—where, I would note, I am proud to have grown up—have all committed to go 100% renewable by 2050. They're doing this because the technology is already viable and becoming more viable, it brings local economic and social benefits, and it fights climate change.
I urge the committee to acknowledge this fact in your study. The declining cost of renewables, along with safety issues, and the waste issue that Dr. Edwards described so well, in my mind are an insurmountable challenge for the nuclear industry. The federal government should not waste additional financial resources or policy support on propping up this stagnant industry. Indeed, Greenpeace recommends that this committee turn its focus to study whether the federal government is properly tooled to enable the already innovative renewable and clean tech sector. That's where the change is actually happening and what Canada needs to be part of.
With that, I'd like to conclude my remarks. Thank you for listening to my comments. I'm happy to take questions.