Tom: Okay. Good afternoon and welcome everyone. I thank you for joining our Energy Innovators Roundtable. My name is Tom Timmins and I lead the energy group here at Gowling WLG. I'm absolutely delighted to be able to welcome our speakers and our guest host, Laura Van Soelen, today. The Energy Innovator Roundtables we started here at Gowling a number of years ago. Originally they were breakfast roundtables where we aimed to have some place between 25 to 30 people sitting at a table. Of course that was all pre-COVID. This year we switched to virtual meetings and numbers have grown but we've continued the tradition and we've had a number of good discussions, post-COVID, and I think today's will be one of the best that we'll have, actually in that context. The point of the roundtables really was to facilitate an open discussion. Originally we had chat house rules. We no longer have that. This session, just so you know, is being recorded. For those participating in the audience we welcome questions. Down at the bottom of your screen you will see the Q&A function. You can post questions and our moderator, Laura, and our speakers will be keeping an eye on that and we very much look forward to questions. Without further ado I'd like to introduce our moderator today, my partner and colleague and friend, Laura Van Soelen. Laura is a partner at Gowling WGL in Toronto office. I've worked with Laura for more than 10 years and she's one of my favourite people at Gowling. She's also one of my favourite lawyers and she's a terrific lawyer. Laura works heavily in the energy sector. She's got particular strength in SMRs and in nuclear. Laura works closely and alongside Ahab Abdel-Aziz, the Ahab Abdel-Aziz, Robert Armour, Scott Fletcher and others in the group and she will be leading our session today. As I mentioned this session is being recorded. The Q&A function is down at the bottom. I would encourage anyone who has a microphone, that's working, to stay on mute but keep your cameras on and with that I'm going to pass it over to Laura to introduce our speakers. Thank you, Laura.
Laura: Great. Thank you very much, Tom. There were a few things I was going to say in my intro that now I don't have to say so I appreciate all of that. Let me say welcome to everyone who's on the line. We're delighted to have you wish us. Today's topic is small market reactors. At Gowlings our nuclear group has been fortunate to work with a variety of stakeholders in the SMR space over the last few years. As a group we're very excited about the promise that they hold. We're encouraged by the actions of the Federal Minister and the Provincial Ministers over the last year or so and we're very delighted to host today's discussion. Today we'll hear from five terrific speakers on what governments, regulators and industry in Canada have done, particularly since the release of the SMR roadmap in November of 2018, and what they should be doing to position Canada to be an early mover on deployment of SMRs. We'll begin with the opening remarks from each of our speakers followed by Q&A. So without further ado let me introduce our speakers to you and I'll first indicate everyone's names before we pass the baton or the torch, as it were, over to each of our speakers for their intro remarks.
Our speakers are John Gorman, who is the CEO and President of Canadian Nuclear Association. Thanks for joining us, John. We have Katherine Moshonas Cole, who is Country Manager Canada, for X-Energy. We have Bob Temple, who's General Counsel of NuScale. We have Kun Chen, who is Vice-President, Licencing and Regulatory for Moltex Energy and we have Eric McGoey. Eric is really fancy. He has two titles. His first title is Director at Remote Generation Development for OPG and his second titles is Engagement and Communications Director with Global First Power. So with that, John, I'd like to turn it over to you for your opening remarks, please.
John: Thank you. Thank you very much and I'm delighted to be here with all of you this afternoon. Bit shout-out to Gowling. Thank you for inviting us to participate on this Energy Innovators Roundtable. It's really a very impressive and diverse audience that you've pulled together for these events and a wonderful opportunity for the nuclear industry to be engaging in a discussion like this. Of course I'm really pleased to be on the panel with the speakers that we have here today who really represent some of the most promising and exciting technologies that are out there. Of course we've got one of our largest utilities with us here today, who's been a real driver behind the SMR push in Canada, so thank you for that. I'll say a quick word about the organization that I'm with. I'm the head of the Canadian Nuclear Association. We're a national trade association representing, not only the generators, but also an entire ecosystem of companies that are actively engaged in providing services and products to the nuclear industry. It extends well beyond electricity into other very important areas, like nuclear medicine, for example and it includes academia and the wonderful laboratories that we have working on both energy and nuclear medicine related issues. I'll also just spend a moment to talk a little bit about my background, for those of you who don't me, because I think it's relevant to the discussion that we're going to have. I've been involved in the electricity sector for about 20 years but I'm new to the nuclear sector. A large part of my career has been spent trying to marry what we can do from an energy perspective with what our goals are, both nationally and globally, as it relates to climate change and in various capacities I've tried to do that. Whether in my work with utilities or as a developer of renewable energy projects. In my most immediate past role, which was as the President and CEO of the Canadian Solar Industries Association, and as Tom knows well we did a lot of work there, starting a storage division and also working to bring together the wind storage and solar industries together in one larger association. So, I come to nuclear from that renewable background and it was just driven out of a recognition that despite the incredible work, and the important work, that we've done as a national global community with renewables, and I'm talking here about wind and solar in particular, we've driven down the cost of those technologies so that they are low cost tools now that the world is using and they're readily needed. But it's also the case that despite that progress, and the investment and growth of those renewables, we're simply not making progress quickly enough, as a world, in terms of decarbonizing our electricity and our energy systems. 20 years ago we were at 36% non-emitting electricity on the world's grids and today, 20 years later despite the remarkable growth in renewables, we're still at 36%. So what we need is something to compliment renewables and other clean technologies that is also clean and that's why nuclear is needed for our future and for net zero at 2050. I'm happy to say that Canada's a world leader in conventional nuclear as well as the next generation technologies that we're talking about today. So those are the reasons why nuclear is important and why Canada is going to play an important role here, at home and globally, through SMRs.
So what are SMRs? The concept is not new, right? SMRs have been around for a long time. Ice breakers, submarines, aircraft carriers. But this next generation of technology, they do bring something that builds on that. You can almost think of these small modular reactors as the personal computers compared to mainframe computing from conventional nuclear which are very, very large plants. These small modular reactors, you can build, fuel and service in factory like conditions. There's a manufacturing component to this because they are much smaller. So you get these economies of scale and design, construction and operation. The designs are also, I think we'll hear it from our panelists today, simplified and they've got these inherent safety characteristics that make them very attractive. There's a variety of designs, as you're going to see, including molten salt and high pressure gas. They're very scaleable. They're very, very scaleable. You might think of solar, or even wind in terms of scaleability, but these range from as small as 1 or 2 megawatts. 1 or 2 megawatts might provide heat and power to a remote community or maybe 60 megawatts, if you combine a number of these different units together in a modular way that can be used to decarbonize the extraction of oil and gas or mining operations, or as big as 300 megawatts, which we've got a couple on the books here that are going to be attached to the electricity grids in Ontario and Saskatchewan. So very, very scaleable which is important to know.
Now, why is Canada a leader in small modular reactors? I just want to spend a moment on this. Canada's a leader right now on small modular reactors firstly, because we have this incredible history of leadership, global leadership in conventional nuclear. I'm talking here about our plants in Ontario and New Brunswick but we also have a major refurbishment of these existing plants in Ontario going on right now. $26 billion dollar refurbishment which is, I think, the largest infrastructure project in Canada right now. It's going to go on for about 10 years. It's going to extend the life of these plants which provide 66%, about 2/3, of our electricity in Ontario. It's going to extend the life of these plants, some of them into the 2060's, and what that means is that we have a very healthy ecosystem here, nuclear ecosystem. A platform on which to build into small modular reactors and that's exactly what we're doing. But these two things are married. It's our long experience and it's these ongoing refurbishments, this large industry which contributes about $17 billion dollars a year to the GDP and employs 76,000 people, that is driving our ability to be a world leader. The other element to this is the unbelievable coordination and collaboration that we have going on between multiple parties. I'm not just talking about the utilities who in this case have joined together for four utilities, Sask Power, Ontario Power Generation, Bruce Power, New Brunswick Power, have come up with a joint approach to developing and deploying three different streams of small modular reactors. Very specific plan about how to do that starting with things like having a licenced site in Darlington, where we can actually build one of these right away, or looking towards our national laboratory, Canadian National, a nuclear laboratory which has the ability to be piloting all sorts of different technologies, etcetera. So a very comprehensive plan by industry but it's backed by this quite incredible political alignment, both Federally, for one of the first times. You know we have a champion in Minister O'Regan, the Minister of Natural Resources Canada, who is out there on national and international stages talking about Canadian's leadership in nuclear. It extends into the department through the leadership of Sean Tupper and others at NRCan who are really driving the industry and our nation towards being able to develop and deploy these quickly. We also have an incredible regulator in the CNSC that is proving to be a very flexible regulator in terms of how it deals with innovative technology and it's the reason that we've got 12 different technologies for the review and licence vendor design process right now. 12 different technologies. This is a very attractive place to be. The last thing I'll say about the Provincial side, and I think Eric is going to touch on this later, aside from the Federal support we now have four Provinces, the Premiers of four Provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick, who have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, saying they want to deploy these in their Provinces and their economies and help use those small modular reactors to meet their carbon goals. So incredible alignment is what are strength is right now and a real detailed plan that we have in something called the SMR, small modular reactor, roadmap which we'll also touch on.
Timelines, I'll just say quickly, they've already been deployed in other countries. We've got someone here from NuScale who is going to be talking about the exciting development that's started in Idaho. As I mentioned we've got 12 different technologies in Canada going through the vendor design and licencing review process right now. The utilities are targeting 2028 for one to be connected to the electricity grid and I know that some of the smaller units, the ones that can be deployed in oil and gas, mining or First Nations communities, they can be available before that and I expect that they will be. So this is going to help with our 2030 targets, as well as our 2050 targets, but let's not forget that nuclear has been pivotal to us making our way towards our 2030 targets. It was on the backs of nuclear that we were able to phase out coal in Ontario, for example. 89% of that coal was replaced with nuclear, and so between that and the refurbishments that are going on, we really are going to make a big dent in our 2030 emission targets as well as our 2050 targets.
I wanted to say a quick word about why I'm so personally excited about SMRs in the Canadian context. I could talk about this forever and I'm not allowed to do that but what I will say is this, what is so exciting about SMRs to me is that they could literally be at the very heart of an energy transition for Canada, leading to 2050. I say that because they don't just produce electricity, they produce very dependable high quality, high temperature clean heat, as well. So, the fact that they are scaleable and responsive on the electricity side, means that we can help support intermittent sources of electricity, like wind and solar, and create new opportunities for them. But because these things also produce heat, and in some cases stored heat, we will be able to do things like help decarbonize the way that we extract oil and gas. Or help mining operations get the heat and the electricity that they need. We can help First Nations communities get off of diesel power to provide heat and power to Northern communities. The heat can be used to produce hydrogen which is a fuel that we're going to need as we go forward to decarbonize these areas that are very hard to decarbonize with electricity alone. So it's by virtue of the scaleability responsiveness, but also the clean heat and power that is going to put it at the center of transition, an energy transition for Canada. I'm very excited about that and I think we're going to be able to export that sort of help to the rest of the world. Very last thing I'll say is on our small modular reactor roadmap, this was a process that was started under NRCan's leadership in 2018. Very heavy involvement by stakeholders across the board including industry. It really has been an enabler of our industry to get coordinated on this front, and to bring technologies like the ones we're going to hear from today, front and center. The Canadian Nuclear Association has put together a secretariat which is essentially a tracking, monitoring and making sure that industry is doing its part to deliver on this. We're going to see that the action plan that is springing from this small modular reactor roadmap, this action plan that NRCan is leading that has actually collected commitments from a very diverse group of Provinces and Territories and other communities, as well as users, it's going to be brought out on November 18 and that's going to be an exciting time. So I hope that was a good overview of the general context for SMRs and looking forward to the discussion.
Tom: Great. Thanks very much for that, John. Katherine, on to you please.
Katherine: Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Thank you, John, for setting the stage and where the SMR roadmap is. Just a little bit of background about myself. I've been in the industry here in Canada for almost 35 years now and I was involved in some of the early discussions on the roadmap at the executive, the Nuclear Association, before you joined, John. I want to thank Laura and Gowling for putting this together and including me. I'm delighted to be here with the colleagues and the panelists that are here so thank you very much for that. I'm going to talk a little bit about X-Energy I think, as some of the people here may not know too much about it, so I want to talk a little bit that and a bit about that the technology and what we're doing here in Canada. X-Energy, very much the type of things that John was just talking about, it's focused. We're really transformational nuclear energy technology. Technology that can be a linchpin inside a nuclear energy system or inside the energy industry. A technology that can provide the kind of things that John spoke about in terms of hydrogen production, electricity, co-generation, district heating, opportunities for heavy industry to use high quality, high temperature steam. Dr. Kam Ghaffarian is the founder of X-Energy and there's a mission to change the world through innovative and implementable energy solutions. Sounds a little motherhood but it's not when you really think about the history of this mission. Kam Ghaffarian, I'll just take a quick, quick note here, he's an entrepreneur, he's a businessman. He has dealt with very sensitive technically advanced projects through the companies that he has built and he has provided services to NASA, DOE, DOD and the United States. But he's also a philanthropist and he fully funds and supports a school in Central Africa that feeds 750 children and provides education to them. When he was there he noticed the incredible energy poverty in the region. That was the impetuous to getting X-Energy really off the ground. Where he saw that it doesn't matter how much education and potential he may give these children, their opportunities are stunted because of the energy poverty and the lack of opportunity that that results in. So that's when he set out to really look for a source of energy that would be transformational in terms of climate change and in terms of energy poverty. In doing that he set out certain requirements. They're the ones that John talked about and SMRs largely subscribe to. It has to be intrinsically safe. It has to not have emergency planning outside the planned fence, inside the inclusionary boundary only. It has to be licenceable in various jurisdictions. It needs to be economically competitive. It has to be scaleable. It's a bit of a democratization of energy that it can actually be built in places that are not necessarily as rich as the places where nuclear power currently exists mostly. It needs to be, I mentioned scaleable. It needs to be based on proven technologies. It needs to be citeable almost anywhere. So he threw it in on high temperature gas reactors and we are very fortunate to have a group of engineers, many of them having worked on the South African PBMR Project including two lead engineers, Dr. Martin van Staden and Dr. Eban Mulder, who brought operating experience from the German program as well. Just for those of you that don't know, X-Energy focuses on high temperature gas reactors. I'll speak a bit about it.
HTGI's are not new. They've been around for decades. There have been plants built around the world, in the US, in Japan, in Germany and have operated for a certain period of time which allows experience in that operating space to be brought back into the innovations that we've put into our technology. Dr. Ghaffarian also noticed that we were running a commercial and strategic risk, with respect to fuel supplies so that's when he hired a fuel guru, Dr. Pete Pappano, who is a TRISO expert and he developed the capability to produce TRISO and improved on the production and manufacturing processes that existed to create a remarkably consistent TRISO fuel forum. The TRISO are little tiny particles. I'll get into that a little bit. So the DOA is called TRISO fuel, the most robust fuel on earth, and our company makes this fuel so we have a full scale line to make the fuel. We are working towards a commercial plant at this time. So fuel testing is going on right now. Has been going on for decades. This fuel really is robust, as the DOA said. Currently we're looking at fuel vision product retention of 99.99, or better, percent of the vision product. So very, very robust fuel and that lent itself to simplifying the overall design.
High temperature gas reactors, some of you out there might know what they are. I was very excited when I learned about them and I'd love to sit here and talk at length about what they are but we don't have that much time. We don't have days unfortunately so I will just let you know that our high temperature gas reactor is a pebble bed reactor. We have these little tiny TRISO particles that are inside. This is a laminate. It's not a pebble. But it's the right size. We have about 19,000 particles inside a pebble that is about the size of this lemon which is 6 centimeters across. I actually found this in my refrigerator this morning. Our reactor, imagine like a gumball machine with 220,000 of these in it, and it's very simple. The helium heat transports fluids, so the helium collects the heat that is produced through the fissioning that goes on inside these pebbles. The helium goes to a generator and transforms water into steam, or actually it's high temperature steam in a steam generator, and that steam can then be used for any number of purposes. Electricity generation is the obvious one but also because of the high temperature of that steam we could also use it in co-generation capacity, as well as other areas. So that's the general process. The team that was put together simplified and optimized the design that existed, improved the burn up. For those of you that are familiar are fuel burns at 170,000 megawatt days per tonne so very, very, very high burn up, and has optimized on the safety of the reactor as well. So that's a little bit about the technology for those of you that are keen on that. Our technology is extremely simple. It's modular so each one of our units is 80,000 megawatts electric. 200 megawatts thermal. We have about 1/10 of the number of systems. It's not just that the systems are smaller. We have fewer of them. We have fewer safety systems, we're not cutting corners on safety just to make sure, the current fleet of nuclear reactors is extremely safe. I cut my teeth on CANDU and I can tell you right now that I would be happy living right next door to one. But what we have done with the current generation of reactors is simplify it so that we still meet the same rigorous safety criteria by using a simpler method. This very robust fuel is part of that case. So because of the simplicity there's a lower cost of building them. There's a lower cost to operating and to maintaining them. A lot of reactors are fully flexible. They load follow. They have flexible operation and can produce hydrogen, can desalinate, can support chemical processes, can be used in the Northern Alberta for removing petroleum or for processing that petroleum after it has been brought out of the oil sands. That's a little bit about the technology.
X-Energy's vision is really to leave a cleaner planet behind. It's to leave a cleaner planet for our children and grandchildren and do that while still providing energy for the world's populations, the growing populations around the world. This vision is clearly aligned with my vision. It's clearly aligned with Canada's clean energy goals, in my view, and this is a bit of a reflection or a mirroring of some of the things that John mentioned as well. At the moment there is an unprecedented convergence. I'll just maybe repeat some of what you said, John. There is an unprecedented convergence. There is an incredible alignment of our political leadership and there's an environmental imperative. Along with that there's a leading capable and well exercised nuclear industry. We also have a leading regulator. We have all these other things that make Canada an exciting place to be developing an SMR industry that can then reach out globally. I think along with all of this, in according with the roadmap, as we need the technologies to go along with all the streams. We need a technology that is ready for deployment, quickly. We are looking at future technologies as well and some of my colleagues will speak to that as well. We're looking at technology, also smaller scale reactors. For Screen 1, which is the one that X-Energy is interested in here in Canada, we believe that we do have a technology that can meet those goals and we find that this environment, and this alignment of political leadership, this alignment of the environmental imperative and the industrial base is perfect for developing that SMR industry. The other thing that is very important is the relevancy for the future so we believe that the technology that we choose to deploy right now, needs to be relevant in the future as well. We need to see this as a technology that will continue. Where there will be a fleet of these and there will be support and the ability to deploy these across the country, in Canada, but also outside of the country. In my view, what I'm seeing here and what we're doing is, I see this technology as a super catalyst to position Canada as a leader in Generation Four. I think our industry here deserves to have great technologies to work with. It is set up for that and therefore I see this as very valuable that we have these technologies that we are adopting and that we are able to use them to develop our industry.
I'll just give you a little bit of what we've been doing so far. I think many of you are aware of our work that we were just embarking on with Ontario Power Generation to further develop our design. This summer we also incorporated Xe-100 Canada, which is to be our base of operations for Canada's X-Energy activities, as well as to focus on the near term sighting of this first Xe-100 reactor in Canada and also for building out, hopefully, a fleet of these across the country. As well as hopefully to establish a fuel fabrication facility to supply that high quality TRISO-X for a Canadian fleet. We are in the process, and we have been actually for months now, building relationships with strategic partnerships to complete the Xe-100 design here in Canada and also to supply those high value systems and components that will need to be replicable for the future units as well. We're looking at that for global and domestic use. So we're in the business of establishing really true partnerships. We're very, at the moment, working closely with Hatch and Kinectrics, as examples and they are partners in the work that we are doing. These are companies that are what I call true Canadian success stories. They have great global reach and they have a lot of fantastic expertise that we're able to work with. Kinectrics is our Canadian licencing team. They are providing the full licencing for our design and that is consistent with our business model. We're designing the core, the reactor block, shall we say the power block, then we have all this site specific activity that has to happen. So Kinectrics is our Canadian licencing team. We're engaged with the regulators that combine Phase 1 and 2, better design review of the Xe-100, and we've started those conversations and in our first submission is in. We've established an NDA and have started conversations with the NWMO on spent fuel because that is another very important area that any technology will have to work on. So you know, we're active participants in the nuclear industry through the CNA, OCNI, CANDU owner's group. We're participating in CSA task forces. So just to summarize a little bit, I think this is an incredible time for Canada. I think it's an incredible time for SMRs. We have an existential issue ahead of us and we need to all work together. I do believe that the X-Energy technology is a great catalyst for developing this world leading Canadian leading SMR program that I'm hoping that we will be a part of and that is a key objective of the SMR roadmap. So, hopefully we're ready to deploy within the next 7 years and we're looking to a joint success with our Canadian partners. Thank you.
Tom: Great. Thank you for your comments, Katherine. Bob, I'd invite you to speak next please.
Bob: Thank you, Laura, and thank you also to John and Katherine for setting the stage for this. I'll try to sort of build on some of what they've had to offer. I'm going to use the collected slides so if you'll bear with me to help us level a little bit with regard to what NuScale is and where we're going. Next slide, please. I have the obligatory acknowledgement to the US Department of Energy. That's partially funding our program as well as a disclaimer about anything that I have to say since I'm a lawyer.
Next slide, please. Okay, a little bit of background about NuScale. Dr. Jose Reyes actually started NuScale back in 2007 thinking in a few years he could commercialize the concept and here we are, many years later, and we're still working towards commercialization but we're a lot closer than we were then. A couple of things happened really to get NuScale going and approaching commercialization. First, in 2011 the Fluor Corporation, global engineering and construction company, took a majority stake and became NuScale's lead investor. Starting in 2013, NuScale won a competition, put in a bid for ... work in the US Department of Energy. Thus far we've received over $300 million dollars from DOE to help fund us. Today we've accumulated a patent portfolio of more than 530 patents granted, or pending, in over 20 countries that are over 400 NuScale employees and 6 offices in the US and an office in the UK. NuScale has undergone a rigorous design review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I'll talk more about a few of those things. Next slide, please.
So the technology, ground breaking technology, it features a quality factory ... SMR. The heart of it is the NuScale power module that you see here on the left of the slide. The power module is an integral nuclear steam supply system, with the reactor core down bottom center, the steam generators and the ... are all contained in the same vessel and containment all in the same box. The simple design eliminates reactor coolant problems, large bore piping, no ... and other systems and components found in large conventional reactors. The simplicity results in extremely strong safety case and reduced capital and operating costs. Each module produces up to 60 megawatts of electricity. In our sort of normal configuration up to 12 modules for 720 megawatts gross but we've been evaluating and working on detailed designs associated with smaller accommodations of core applications that don't need that kind of power. Next slide, please.
This shows the module where it is in the reactor building and then in turn where the reactor building is relative to a customer's site with turbine halls on either side of the reactor building and that's where all of the other infrastructure, switch ... cooling systems necessary to make that NuScale plant. All of this is on a site that is about 30 acres in size. Next slide.
NuScale has some hard technologies, new approach to nuclear power. The modules are constructed in a factory and parallel to the construction of the reactor building and ... plant. The modules are then shipped to the site ready to be installed in the reactor building. So there's no field fabrication, erection or construction of the power modules themselves. The modules come from the factory ready to be fueled and installed in individual bays in the reactor building and this drastically reduces the construction time and costs compared to large nuclear power plants. The module and ... technology provides for flexible operation and multiple uses beyond providing basic electric power. Just as Katherine mentioned in her presentation. Next slide.
NuScale's been blazing a trail to commercialization with advanced reactor space for a long time, as I mentioned before, with only SMR designed to 100 ... reviewed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and having invested a billion dollars to date in the development and technology, you can see we've come a long way. But you also see in the graphic, it's a very tall mountain to climb all the way to the operation of our first NuScale power plant which we expect in the late 2020's. The notable milestones, past and present and future, include NRC's approval of our design in August of this year, the first power module forging scheduled to be in 2021 and module fabrication, standard plant design, completing on 2022. Next slide.
As mentioned, NuScale's design of the first SMR under design certification in the US. We announced in August 2020 the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed Phase 6, which is the issuance of the final safety and evaluation report. That represents completion of the technical review and approval of the SMR design. Customers can perceive and rely on the fact that safety aspects of the design have all been addressed. It is extremely important to bring SMRs to market and it's an unparalleled accomplishment relative to other SMR technologies. The final outcome of this process ... NuScale's position as leading SMR design in the market. It's the only design ready to bring ... free energy to the homes of customers in only a few years from now. Next slide.
NuScale has been engaged with the CNSC and a combined Phase 1/Phase 2 Vendor Design Review. NuScale's made two significant submittals thus far allowing reviewers to inspect sections of the plant at a time that plant's with other sections in December and more in 2021 to complete the review. NuScale has been engaging with perspective customers in Canada to pass up leaders. Next slide.
We're working with our first customer, Utah Associated Municipal Power System, or UAMPS. On the first plant to be located in DOE's Idaho National Lab Site. Globalization for the first NuScale plant will begin next year. We'll break ground with construction in 2023, putting jobs and substantial income with benefits to the region, almost immediately. We expect the full complete full module plant will be America's first operating small modular reactor plant. The ability for NuScale Plant to replace power loss by retiring coal plants was the key reason why the US decided to move forward with NuScale's technology for its current power project, by recent quote from USC, Doug Hunter. Next slide, please.
We recently commissioned an internal study with our utility advisory board members that coal generation has passed ... feasibility to repurpose existing coal plants already slated to retire. The first 720 NuScale has a small physical footprint, around 30 acres as I mentioned previously, which can be built on an existing coal plant site. The extremely strong safety case, which would satisfy conditions needed for approval of a site boundary emergency planning zone. It would allow NuScale plant to be built at inside of a coal plant locations in areas where the community is growing up around the plant. Coal plants that have been located at the end of the line or distributed generation locations. Parallel capabilities in the NuScale technology make it an ideal repowering solution. Next slide, please.
NuScale power modules are factory made but where's the factory? Since 2018 we've been working with BWXT manufacturing of our NuScale power modules. The upper module, which is the part of NuScale power module most complex, includes the steam generator, pressurizer and other key components we expect will be made in Cambridge, Ontario. Next slide.
We estimated about 14,000 direct supply team jobs with support deployment of a NuScale plant in Canada. This is giving you an opportunity for Canadian suppliers and specifically indigenous other suppliers based in Ontario. A way to making key decisions and other well bought supply chain ... approach for its deployment. Next slide.
Fluor has been operating in Canada as a engineering, procurement, construction company for over 70 years. Their scope of supply would be the rest of plant outside of the NuScale power module which includes all of the components that you see on this slide, and more. So they've already gotten an established supply chain and we expect that they would expand that supply chain in hopes for the NuScale plant deployment. Next slide.
While our immediate focus is on our first plant deployment in the United States we continue to engage with a number of potential customers in the US that have passed or intend to pass legislation to the Commissioners, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emission. We've seen growing customer interest on the global scale as our technology nears commercialization. Having first mover advantage seeing our technology being the first to complete a top tier major regulatory review and deployed in the 20's sets NuScale apart from competition. The utilities seeing NuScale SMRs as a viable long term solution for meeting energy and water needs as well as carbon emission reduction goals. We've signed preliminary agreements with customers in Canada and Romania, Czech Republic, Jordan and many other countries, to explore the deployment of our technology. Next slide.
NuScale is the future of energy. Our concept for smarter, cleaner, safer and perhaps a competitive energy source is getting closer to commercialization with over a decade of R&D and testing and ensuring design. With that, next slide, and I think they close off. That's it.
Tom: Great. Thank you very much, Bob. Kun, I'll turn it over to you now, please.
Kun: Thank you, Laura. Thank you for inviting us to this event. My name is Kun and we're Moltex Energy. Like Bob I'm going to use a few slides. Can we go to the next one, please? So, let me maybe introduce a little bit. Who we are at Moltex. Moltex energy founded in the UK with objective of developing a technology that can enable low cost, clean electricity. So our goal is to develop affordable energy to everyone. That's very important to us and we moved to Canada a few years ago. We set up office here because we think Canada's currently the world leader in terms of developing a small modular reactor. We have got a wonderful environment here to give out the new technology, new career, in terms of regulation, policy, customers. We have got the opportunity to be the first of a kind, to notice our reactor at the Lepreau Point pro site. So since then we have formed a team in Saint John, New Brunswick. We do a lot of work in New Brunswick. We do design on the developing a supply chain across the Province. Of course we're also looking at other ... facilities, other companies and supply chain opportunity to the other Provinces, but this moment our New Brunswick office is very active. We also created partnerships with the communities such as the First Nations. So next slide, please.
What is our technology? What are the main features of the Moltex technology? So I can summarize our technology into three points here. The first one is the low cost. Our technology cost less so we do this by eliminating hazards instead of adding layers of protections. Meaning safety systems. So our technology also reduce the nuclear waste. We actually burns the nuclear waste that's produced by other nuclear power reactors so we don't actually burn fresh uranium. We burn the waste. The third one, the very important one, our technology enables renewables because we have the energy storage capability with the power plants. We can store big power and then we supply it when the customer needs it. If we can go to the next slide.
The next few slides I'm going to give you some tangibles about the features I was just talking about. Here is the comparison between the projected cost of Moltex technology to the historical cost of a nuclear power plant. As you can see our costs could be 1/3 of the cost of the traditional power plants. Next one. This is how we can reduce the waste. In the traditional way a power plant benefit fresh fuel, fresh uranium and sent the waste to the DGR, Deep Geological Repository. We're going to take this waste and squeeze some extra energy from that waste using it to you generate electricity. It won't generate additional waste. Also it has the capability of reduce the volume of the waste. Next one, please. So this slide shows how we're going to do the energy storage. We have a plant ... where it can store this thermal energy. So when you have extra electricity on the grid our plant can actually store it as a thermal energy in the Moltex source then release it when the customer needs it. A 300 megawatt Moltex reactor can actually give you a 900 megawatt heating power. It stores the energy and gives you bigger power. Next one.
So, I think it's necessary for us to paint a full picture to the audience. Even though we have all this wonderful features but we also facing tremendous challenges in terms of make it happen. I think it's good that we share this with the audience. I hope we can work together to overcome those challenges. So I want to introduce the challenges one by one to you. The first one is the technical challenge. Because we're trying to develop this new technology in literally short period of time we're constantly facing the challenge of a lack of experts to accompany all the technology design we want to do. Especially there's a limited laboratory space. I think in any country that you can actually do the R&D to support your work. The second one is it's a regulatory challenge. There's uncertainty on the time and the resources which require you to complete the environment assessment and the licencing. As our friend, Bob, had just mentioned how many years it could take a technology finally be licenced. I think the biggest challenge is actually about the uncertainty on the timeframe. The third one is policy. At this moment nuclear not always considered as clean energy in the policy. Therefore in many cases it does not getting the necessary support as clean energy. The industry is working very hard to make sure to correct the message is taken. Nuclear is considered as the clean energy but I still see that activity is ongoing. There's still a lot of work to be done. Financial. So, usually a SMR developer will lack government support for the R&D and lack of private investment for construction. In Moltex we're working on the private/public partnership. We think that its the best way to move forward but constantly we're still facing this challenge here. Public acceptance. Public has the concerns over several issues such as nuclear safety, risk management and proliferation. We have heard this constantly. I think there's no way we can move forward without the engagement with public and getting the social licence that we need to give our nuclear. And the last one is political. The political leadership can, at all levels, affect a nuclear project. Just considering how long it will take a nuclear power plant to be built. Next one.
So, with all this challenges we still believe there's a lot of opportunities as well. So I tried to divide it into near terms opportunities and the long term benefit. In the short term when we do the nuclear technology development we generate high value IP and local jobs. So since we move our office to New Brunswick we, not only do the design in R&D in New Brunswick, we actually are doing a supply chain work within the Province. We figured out that we can do a lot of manufacturing work, actually, in that Province. We can also do a lot of work in other Provinces. So overall the development, even before we actually set up the power plants, there's a lot of benefit to the GDP and tax revenues to the community. We expect that every $10 million dollars we invest in SMR it actually contribute $8.5 million to the GDP and create 93 full time equivalent jobs. That's the short term. In the long term, even if a small percentage of this technology we're trying to build in Canada can be realized it would be a transformative for local economies. So whenever we develop this technology we generate this high value jobs that could completely change the community. So whichever the city was waiting to support SMR it will get tremendous benefit in the long run. If we view the power plant then we expect that an average household could save more than $300 dollars per year on lower electricity costs. Internationally if we being able to develop this technology in Canada it will rollout the Moltex reactors over the next 25 years, to the world, it will contribute $6 - $7 billion dollars to the Canadian economy. Those are very tremendous benefit. It needs us to work hard, work together, engage at all level of governments, all Canada's people and teams to really make it happen. Next one.
In conclusion here, Moltex technology is the one that costs less, reduce waste and enable renewables at the same time. So we currently doing most of activities in New Brunswick and we see the activity demonstrate strong growth and momentum. The challenges that we're facing our numerous but none of them are insurmountable. So both near term benefit and the long term benefit are extensive. So hopefully by working with all our partners we can make this happen. I believe the clean energy potential is endless. Thank you very much.
Tom: Great. Thank you very much, Kun, for your comments. Eric, we'll turn to over to you, please.
Eric: Thanks, Laura. So, there's been so many great presentations already. I want to try to build on those and maybe tie some themes together a little bit because we've heard some really good content. I'm more than happy to talk in detail about OPG's Stream 1 On Grid plans or our partnership with Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, our global first power project at Chalk River which is aimed at the off grid stream 3 market competing more against diesel generation in places where the Provincial transmission lines don't go. But I thought it might be useful to pick up on some the big picture themes that we've heard so far and really talk a little bit more about the market and the opportunity. I really like John's comments about Canada as a world leader building on our CANDU experience. We're a tier 1 nuclear country which means we have our regulator, our own supply chain, our own uranium mines and production facilities, as well as the plants themselves. Really, I think the challenge now is when we look at the global market there isn't a market for CANDU size plants anymore. You heard from both Katherine and Bob talking about coal replacement and the opportunity there that as countries and jurisdictions are more and more concerned about carbon. They're looking at getting off coal and looking at other fuels. Really, if you want to move to natural gas, that can cut your carbon emissions basically in half, from coal. But if you can use SMRs to replace that coal fired electricity then you're almost at zero in terms of reducing that carbon.
So one of the reasons that we have this sense of urgency is you look at a Province like Saskatchewan that has committed to getting off coal and, really if we're being realistic, they have three options. They can either import hydro from a neighbouring jurisdiction. They can use SMRs if they're ready and commercially viable or they can use gas plants. Well, if they build those gas plants they're going to run for 25, 30 years to payback the capital cost of building them in the first place. So, if we don't have SMRs ready in time to hit those coal phase out deadlines then we're going to miss a real opportunity that we have, in Canada, and internationally. So, again, if we're being honest about the market here. Provinces that have tremendous hydro assets like BC, Quebec, Manitoba, Newfoundland Labrador, are not going to be interested in being first movers on SMRs. If they're going to build more production for electricity they're probably going to look at hydro first and fair enough. Hydro is great. OPG runs 66 hydro electric generating stations. Lots of love for hydro. So then you look at what are the other alternatives. Well, renewables are also great but storage is quite expensive and you can't get seasonal storage that will last for months the way that you can with big hydro reservoirs or fossil fuels, quite frankly. So if you're looking at complimenting renewables as part of a decarbonized energy system, really SMRs are a perfect fit for providing that emissions free base lower power.
When you look at the 3 streams we're all trying to do that in various places. Kun talked about burning used fuel. Isn't that an amazing story to be able to tell the public. Kun also mentioned that public has a lot of concerns about waste and about safety. Frankly, we have an amazing story to tell about safety as an industry. In this country. Right? We haven't had a single fatality involving staff or members of the public in the nuclear sector in the history of 5 decades of nuclear operation here in Canada. That's an enviable safety record. Our waste story is not as persuasive. That's why the stream 2 advance reactors that companies like Moltex are working on in partnership with our friends at New Brunswick Power are really interesting. Because to be able to go out and tell the public, "Yes, we have a waste solution and it involves reducing the overall volume of waste by reprocessing it and reusing it to unlock more energy that's still there," that's a really, really compelling story. Now, OPG is looking at the timelines of how quickly can we move to help jurisdictions like Saskatchewan with their coal phase out. That's where we're focused on stream 1 as we see as technologies that will be ready to deploy before 2030. We see stream 2 as being more in the 2030's in terms of their deployability. So, what does that allow us to do? Well, when you look at the international market, the export market, certainly we need to prove these technologies here in Canada. There's some really neat opportunities to do that. But then once you go internationally you see that China and Russia have their own technologies, and let's be honest they have their own spheres of influence, and we are probably not going to go sell in their markets but there's a whole bunch of markets, Europe, parts of Africa for example, parts of Asia, that would be very interested in either Canadian or perhaps Canadian/US or Canadian/European partnerships that are not willing to bet on Chinese or Russian technologies. So, there's a really interesting opportunity here.
We are doing some work at OPG I think to try to figure out what the heart of the possible here. So off grid, we've got our GFB partnership with USNC and that's about using SMRs as alternative diesel generation in places where transmission lines are not affordable. That's becoming most attractive to remote mines and remote communities. Really what we're trying to do at Chalk River is a commercial demonstration because one of the challenges is for all of the excitement around SMRs, which is well deserved, at the end of the day there's very few companies who could give you a firm delivery date and a firm price if we asked them for one tomorrow. The Chalk River project is about fixing that problem. So that we could tell you if you run a remote mine, "Yes, based on your energy needs you need two modules. We fuel them once. They run for 20 years and it's going to cost x dollars per megawatt over that 20 year life span. We'll take care of the licencing. We'll take care of the operations and we'll decommission it and take it away when it's done. So you're just buying electrons. In that way you don't have to worry about the diesel transportation issues. You don't have to worry about future carbon costs. You don't have to worry about your inability to buy diesel futures." So that's an interesting market for off grid SMRs. OPG is not the only company that is involved there, even on the utility. Just last week Bruce Power announced a partnership with Westinghouse on their eVinci technology. That's two different technologies that we're looking at in stream 3. Then you look at stream 2. Stream 2 is overwhelmingly being lead by New Brunswick. Moltex and ARC Energy, the two companies there. I'm not going to speak on their behalf. I think Kun did a great job talking about the opportunity there. Then stream 1, that goes back to the PAN Canadian Corporations. Think back to last December when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Premiers of Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. There's been a lot of work that's been done by the utilities in those 3 jurisdictions. So Sask Power, New Brunswick Power, OPG and Bruce Power to kind of deliver on some products to make that memorandum of understanding something tangible and that really moves the needle in terms of progress post SMR roadmap. I think November is shaping up to be a pretty exciting month for SMRs. Just while we were doing this conference, this roundtable, there was an announcement. I don't want to steal anybody's thunder so I won't get into too much detail but there was an announcement by the Federal government of some funding through their Strategic Innovation Fund, related to SMRs, which is obviously great news. The utilities that have been working together on the inter-Provincial MOU have put together a feasibility study that is on the cusp of being released. It got held up because of a couple of elections. One in New Brunswick, now one in Saskatchewan, so once Saskatchewan has a new government, indeed a cabinet and a Minister of Energy, or environmental can sign off on the release of that report, I imagine we'll be seeing that in November. Of course, the Federal government is kicking off their action plan on November 18 at the G4SR Conference. So, I think there's a lot of momentum right now on SRMs, to John's point, it's a really exciting area for collaboration between Federal and Provincial governments that might have very different visions, politically, but can agree that SRMs are a really promising way to decarbonize the electricity system and enable electrification of other sectors. So, it's a really exciting time, I think, for the country right now. My boss's boss, Dominique Miniere, likes to say, "SMRs are coming to Canada. It's inevitable. The question is do we want to be buyers only or do we want to build on the rich history of operations and the supply chain and the uranium mining and the regulator and actually capture some of the value in that market? Not just buy other people's SMRs but, indeed, sell our own." That's the challenge. That's the opportunity and it's great to be hear to talk to you about that. Thanks.
Tom: Great. Thank you, Eric, and thank you everyone for your excellent remarks. We have about 20 minutes now for Q&A and a lot of questions coming in from the audience. Thanks very much. Let's jump in and try to tackle some of those. We have a question about manufacturability, which is something that, John, you started talking about at the opening of the conversation. The question is do you need a specialized factory to achieve the benefits of factory construction of SMRs? Or can you retool, or repurpose, an existing factory? And is there anything that the Canadian government can do to promote construction of that kind of a factory in Canada? So maybe I will throw that out to one of our SMR developers who can speak to that point. Bob and Kun both want to talk? Bob, why don't you go first. I think your hand was up first. Or your microphone was off first.
Bob: Sure. Then I'll defer to Kun. We have been working with BWXT Canada on our manufacturing plan since 2018. They don't have to do a lot of retooling their capabilities in nuclear well known. The manufacturing, steam generators and replacement steam generators, reactor ... heads, for decades so they have the capability to do what they need for our product. Kun.
Kun: Yes, so we have joined a supply chain study last year. We're working with OCNI to refine that study. I know the numbers are changing everyday but my impression was that the majority of the components can be made in the existing facilities for the technology.
John: Laura, I'll just say a little bit of overall context to that and go back to this fact that because of this major refurbishment that is underway right now, this $26 billion dollar refurbishment that as I mentioned is I think Canada's largest infrastructure project right now, will continue for 10 years. We have a sector here that is firing on all cylinders. This incredible supply chain, Bob mentioned BWXT Canada, which is a global leader in terms of this sort of manufacturing that it does, but we can look to other companies like SNC-Lavalin which equally is doing so much work here but also in the United States in nuclear. This healthy ecosystem combined with these tier 1 companies who've got such a long history in Canadian nuclear really do provide the capacity with their supply chain based here in Canada to be able to provide all sorts of products and expertise to these things.
Katherine: Let me just add as well just from our point of view. I think there are two questions here. One is on the ability to actually manufacture the components and the systems and the other one is on the modularization of it and to actually create the modules that you would then transport to install and limit or minimize any onsite work that would need to be done. I think the answers at the beginning are very similar to what I would say. Our technologies, they're generally any components or systems are tier 7 or above, so things that can be manufactured fairly readily and the supply chain here in Canada is capable of producing the kinds of things that we need. At least the great majority of them, definitely over 80 or 90% of them if not more. But then the other question is about establishing a fabrication facility. Perhaps it creates super modules where you might be able to be moving pre-fabricated sections of the facility. That is something that we're just working on right now in terms of studying how that would be. I think as we have more units in the queue, having a dedicated facility for developing and creating those modules, would be of value.
Laura: To follow up on that, what does factory manufacturing and modularization, what impact does that have on say a construction schedule for siting of an SMR? Eric, do you want to talk about this?
Eric: Sorry. You caught me in responding to questions in the chat. Because, you know what? I'm going to take a pass on this one because I think you've got some venders who can actually speak more articulately to the factory question. Because we are still looking at 3 different vendors for stream 1. I don't want to speak on behalf of any of them and offend the other ones. I'll back away diplomatically.
Laura: Okay. Fair enough. Katherine, are you taking off your microphone to volunteer to answer that?
Katherine: I'll just speak about it qualitatively rather than quantitatively. Fundamentally, if we're able to manufacture and fabricate in a factory, we're able to then do many of the commissioning tests as well there. We create certainty. I think it's that certainty and schedule that's really important. As we've produced the next of a kind, the first of a kind will always be a first of a kind, but as we get to the next of a kind we develop more certainty, both in terms of schedule and cost and so forth. I think these are the kind of things that we're looking at, with fabricating something in a set factory environment as opposed to welding and doing things on site in large quantities, where you end up with having to do all your testing then on site.
Laura: John. Sorry, go ahead. Yes?
John: I think part of the important proposition of small modular reactors is this idea that by being able to manufacture either the whole unit, or significant components of the unit, in a manufacturing plant and then shipping it to site, is where the cost effectiveness efficiencies are going to come from. It is also dependent on the number of units that we're manufacturing and shipping out there. So this is a legitimate factor in terms of determining whether or not small modular reactors are going to be really cost competitive. I think Canada is an ideal testing ground for this because the market is actually there in the three different streams that Eric was outlining. Our plans, currently right now, see the deployment of multiple units in various markets. While Canada, relatively speaking is a small market from global standards, we do have the market runway here to actually demonstrate that these things are not only useful in all the ways that we're talking about them being useful, but that they can be cost competitive as well. So I'll just add that to the mix.
Laura: Great. Thank you. We've had some questions about operation of SMRs and whether independent remote operation is feasible. Perhaps I'll through it out to the SMR developers for you to comment on that. Bob, it looks like you were first.
Bob: I just kicked off. We've already set up simulators that reach out to other locations. We have just deployed a similar Oregon State University with servers, actually, operating systems within our sphere of influence that we control. So we've clearly got the capability of doing remote operation. We actually have interstate approval for 6 operators in a 12 unit control room right now and we have them evaluating 3 operators in the control room. The fact of the matter is that we see the ability to operate multiple units at a distance as being something that's not only technically feasible but something that's desirable for the future. Especially if you look at remote locations and being able to install units in faraway places.
Laura: Yes, go ahead.
Katherine: We've been avidly working on a digital twin to allow for remote maintenance and establishment of maintenance requirements remotely. That is part of a larger program in the United States so were several grants given out. One of them to our group but also to others to work on the concept of digital twinning. So, yeah, just wanted to add that. That is a major initiative within the SRM world as a whole. We're not the only ones. We are all, I think, looking at this it's a very important aspect to reduce costs in terms of maintenance and operations. Especially when you're looking at a fleet deployment. Obviously that's when it becomes of value.
Kun: Sorry. If I may.
Laura: Yes, Kun.
Kun: Our technologies are actually focusing on the larger power stations so technically we're able to do this but our focus is really on reducing the operational cost. We think the remote operation is very applicable to the power plant which is lower power level. Those micro reactors to be of building the remote communities. Maybe Eric has more insight into that issue.
Laura: Looks like Eric is perhaps answering more of the questions coming in from the audience right now. Eric, did you have anything you wanted to say on that or should we move on to the next question?
Eric: In terms of the remote communities, specifically?
Laura: Sure. Yup.
Eric: Yeah. So, OPG has not been in the remote communities business. We've been a grid power company for a long time. I think the reason that we've been pushed kind of to look at stream 3 business is for a couple of different reasons. One is that we hear very clearly from governments that that accounts for a lot of their interest in SMRs. They think about remote mines, for example. The reality is that most of the ore deposits that are close to existing infrastructure, like highways and rail, have already been mined out. So when we find really promising new deposits they are often in remote areas. From economic development perspective it makes a lot of sense to look at technologies that wouldn't rely on the kind of logistics that you would need to transport millions of litres of diesel. For example, a single USNC unit of the kind that we're trying to commercially demonstrate at Chalk River, is do it once. Once for 20 years. That would save you having to transport 60 million litres of diesel. Governments are very interested in that and of course we are owned by the Government of Ontario. We work closely with the Government of Canada and so it behooves us to pay attention to what the governments are interested in. But the other reason, I think, and this is relevant for everyone in the sector is when you think about our nuclear regulator. The Canadian Safety Commission is used to having regulations for large gigawatt class plants. The Pickerings, Darlingtons, Bruces, which technically run on uranium but really they run on people. You need about 3,000 people to staff each of those plants. That's a lot of people. So the next generation of SMRs that we're all talking about now it requires fewer people to operate. In the hundreds not the thousands and maybe the low hundreds rather than the high hundreds. One of the challenges that we see is how are we going to work collaboratively with the regulator. Of course the regulator needs to be independent. It needs to hold us to the highest safety standards but there's some interesting opportunities based on the inherent or passive safety systems that we're talking about. Across technologies and across streams that allow us, I think, to make a case to the regulator that you don't have to have the same requirements for these smaller units that you did for the larger ones. In some ways it makes sense to start with a very small unit, like a 5 megawatt unit, and then scale up your requirements from that rather than starting at the other end and looking at a gigawatt class and scaling down. I think that's the other reason that the remote piece is interesting, even to a company like OPG whose bread and butter is grid scale.
Laura: I wanted to give perhaps the Canadian Nuclear Association a chance to talk about the announcement that Eric made reference to a few moments ago in his remarks. John, do you want to address that? John, I think you're on mute.
John: Isn't that supposed to be the most often uttered statement of 2020? Look, very exciting news for the industry. In my opening comments I talked about Canada's advantage being the really incredible level of coordination and collaboration that we have in all these different facets. The utilities, these four utilities that have agreed on a pathway to development and deployment of small modular reactors with real markets and real opportunities and what the Provinces and the Feds have done in terms of statements on the matter, our innovative Regulator, which is important and our laboratories, etcetera. I mean our advantage really has to do with our plan and the level of coordination that we have right now to actually execute. What's been missing is the financial contribution from the Federal government in terms of bringing these new technologies through a first of a kind deployment licencing, siting, etcetera. That's a costly process and it's one that requires not only commitment but support from the Federal government to match what these technology companies and the utilities are bringing forward. What we saw today was basically bringing in that last ingredient, the missing ingredient. I think it's a very promising first step to really putting in to full motion this machinery that we've got in place and let's hope that in the coming weeks and months we see further signals from the Federal government there that they're all in.
Laura: Thanks very much, John, and actually that takes me to a question that I'm hoping will weave together some of the questions that are hanging out there from the audience. We heard from a couple of the speakers today that the Federal government is going to be releasing an SMR action plan in November of this year. We have a number of questions from the audience about whether we think Canada will be the first jurisdiction to have a commercial SMR sited here and what needs to happen to make sure that that is the case. Perhaps I'll ask each of the panelists what are your predictions or your hopes for what might be released in the SMR action plan coming out in November? Eric, we'll go to you first because you're in the top right of my screen.
Eric: Thank you. So, I think we've got a lot of reasons for optimism in terms of what we're going to see in the action plan. I think Minister O'Regan has been more comfortable publicly speaking about SMRs, and the fact that there is no path to net zero without nuclear than some of his predecessors, that we've seen in that portfolio, have been so that's really encouraging. I expect that Intercan and the Federal government are going to try to build the widest possible coalition through that action plan and bring in not just the traditional industry folks. One of the criticisms of our industry is sometimes that we're really good at talking to each other and really bad at talking to other people outside of our group. I think Intercan is wisely trying to broaden that circle and bring not just indigenous communities and organizations to the table, for example, but even broader civil side groups, looking at post secondary education and so on. I think there's going to be a great breadth of people brought to the table which is really encouraging. Then what I think needs to be in there, well frankly I think we say the first drips of that this afternoon, with an announcement of committing real money. Because at the end of the day if the plan only has words and doesn't have dollars it's not going to be much of a plan. The Federal government, I think, has heard loud and clear from utilities and companies across the country that the Federal government needs to be involved in some of the risk sharing. Particularly around first of a kind. Advance manufacturing can get you some really great savings when you're making your nth of a kind widget but building that first one is always going to be expensive. So I think we're looking for some signs from the Federal government that they're interested in partnering and sharing some of that risk.
Laura: Thanks for that, Eric. Katherine, Kun or Bob? John, I'll maybe end with you on that question, if that's okay. Katherine, Kun or Bob. Do either of you wish to respond to that question?
Katherine: Sure. I can add to what Eric said. Risk sharing for first of a kind is a very, very big deal. That is something that we have to accept in Canada, that we need to do that. We need to share in the risk to develop these technologies. Sorry to be repeating what you said, Eric, but I was thinking about this actually yesterday and what do I want to see in that action plan and I would like to see a path to funding, in that kind of very clear and specific government support in that. I think we've come a long way in developing that alignment between the governments and the Provinces and I think that's something that I want to see enhanced in the action plan. The funding is a really big deal. The other thing that I would like to see in order to move many of these SMR technologies forward is a path towards having an enriched uranium and a fuel supply for these advanced technologies. So a recognition that we have to work on that from a point of view of policy and regulation. That's another area that I think would be very important that we see in the action plan as something more specific.
Laura: Kun.
Kun: So I agree with other panelists. At this time we're all so very optimistic about the action plan. We have been having this discussion with all kind of stakeholders but everything is still ongoing so I would just wait for the action plan to be come out. But I'm very hopeful and very optimistic. Thank you.
Laura: Great. Thank you. Bob?
Bob: Yeah, the other speakers have covered it well. We look forward to seeing the action plan and providing an updated response that we're able to hit the mark on because we believe we are a great candidate for the stream 1.
Laura: And, John, if you want to answer this question and wrap things up for this that would be great.
John: I'll do my best. Thank you. The Federal leadership has been there in many important regards. When it comes to the SMR action plan, the SMR action plan is not about money. The SMR action plan is about demonstrating the commitment of industry, and demonstrating that there are markets out there, and stakeholders who want to have their technologies deployed for various purposes that are going to meet their heat and power and climate objectives. So when it comes to risk sharing, which you know is just another way of saying financial contributions from the Federal government to go through this first of a kind experiment, I think the SMR roadmap is another demonstration of Federal leadership that is trying to prove that the markets are there and that the industry is ready so that they can come forward with that risk sharing capital. That's the importance of the SMR action plan. I think it's going to demonstrate both of those things.
Laura: Great. Well, with that we are 4 minutes over time. Thank you to all of our attendees who have hung around for the extra time and an extra special thank you to all of our speakers today for a great discussion. We could have gone on I think for another 3 hours but here we are at our time. Thanks very much to everyone.
John: Thank you.