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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said he is looking forward to the role nuclear energy will play not just in the province but across the nation.
At the Canadian Nuclear Association’s CNA West Conference at TCU Place in Saskatoon on Tuesday, Moe announced that SaskPower will invest $6.3 million over the next six years to establish four new nuclear research chairs at post-secondary institutions in Saskatchewan.
Moe said $6.3 million will be used to establish industrial research chairs and nuclear engineers at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina.
In addition, $3 million will be invested in the Fedoruk Centre for research chairs at Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the First Nations University of Canada.
According to a media release from the provincial government, this funding will be used to develop training programs for students for technical careers in the nuclear sector, and for research in how to use Indigenous knowledge for construction, licensing and operation of nuclear power facilities.
“These investments will advance our province’s research capacities in nuclear engineering safety, as well as in advanced research,” Moe said during his speech on Tuesday.
“This is a commitment and a further testament to this province’s ability to participate at all levels in the nuclear outbuild that we know needs to happen.”
Following his speech, Moe said Canada and North America must determine their own energy security through the development of nuclear power.
“If we truly are going to be secure as a continent, despite challenging current conversations with the United States of America, we are going to have to be energy secure as a continent (and) nuclear power is going to certainly be part of that,” he said.
On Monday, the provincial government launched its Saskatchewan First Energy Security Strategy and Supply Plan that focuses on reliable and affordable power generation.
Part of the plan is to extend the life of coal facilities and utilize Saskatchewan’s coal reserves, which has since been criticized by NDP leader Carla Beck.
“We saw the most recent budget without a plan for coal, (and) without any funding made available for that,” Beck said. “This is a government that is making huge decisions, it seems, on the back of a napkin.”
Opposition critic for SaskPower, jobs, and economy, Aleana Young, said the NDP will be bringing forward its own grid and growth plan.
“If we don’t control our power generation future here in Saskatchewan, we don’t control our economic future,” Young said.
“The government of Saskatchewan keeps saying they’re rebuilding the coal plants, they’re launching a coal Renaissance—that’s frankly not true.”
However, Moe said with the NDP’s plan, there would be a less reliable power grid that would ultimately be more expensive. “That isn’t really a plan at all,” Moe said.
“What we have come forward with is a very concrete plan about how we’re going to provide energy security and affordability in the near term, and how we are going to do a proper transition to nuclear.”
