TransCanada rethinks nuclear future

Gary Park

For Petroleum News

Against a background of bullish talk by France’s state-owned nuclear energy conglomerate about the potential for nuclear reactors in Alberta, utility powerhouse TransCanada is having second thoughts about entering the field.

Just a year after downplaying speculation that nuclear power could fuel Alberta’s oil sands development, Chief Executive Officer Hal Kvisle has conceded his company is engaged in a “detailed” assessment of a nuclear role in the province’s future.

He said there is no question about the long-term electricity supply and demand fundamentals in Alberta.

Kvisle said TransCanada might be able to apply the expertise it has gained as majority owner of Ontario’s Bruce nuclear plant that is undergoing a multibillion-dollar refurbishment.

“We’ve got an exceptionally competent nuclear development team at Bruce that has done a very good job of guiding the refurbishment … which in many ways is similar to a complete new build,” he said.

“We have confidence that team would do a very good job of pursuing nuclear projects in Alberta if they make sense.”

But Kvisle is unsure whether nuclear power would be competitive against “exotic forms of coal generation,” such as coal gasification, he said.

“We don’t think simple coal-fired generation makes sense in Alberta going forward for (carbon dioxide) reasons, but there are coal-gasification and other projects that might make sense and that is what nuclear has to compete with,” Kvisle said.

Alberta currently consumes 9,000 megawatts of electricity and expects to add another 5,000 megawatts by 2016 to handle the surging demand for power in the oil sands sector.

Energy Alberta, a privately held firm, is pursuing a possible C$6.2 billion nuclear plant in the Peace River area of northwestern Alberta, having filed plans with nuclear safety regulators.

It is hoping a 2,200-megawatt plant can start operations in 2017.

Simultaneously, Avera Canada, the Canadian arm of the France state-owned nuclear corporation, has been exploring prospects of building a plant 90 miles northwest of Edmonton.

Avera Canada President Armand Laferrere said that should the Alberta government decide nuclear power could meet 50 percent of its energy needs, there is a case for twin reactors with capacity of 4,500 megawatts in the post-2020 period.

He said that could be the first step toward building six nuclear reactors in Alberta, which he said faces the highest growth in North American electricity demand, needing an extra 10,000 megawatts by 2020.

Research and Markets, a British-based firm, said nuclear power is “back on the menu for 20 countries as a potential baseload generator.”

It said many industrialized nations face a shortfall in baseload power as existing fossil fuel and nuclear fleets come to the end of their operating lives.

Environmental awareness is giving fresh impetus to the nuclear option, although there are “many uncertainties about the economics and future of nuclear energy.”

The study said “coal has already rebounded and nuclear may well do the same,” regardless of the negative public perception.