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INUVIK
Town council is exploring nuclear energy as another long-term option for solving Inuvik's energy crisis.

A plant with a 1,000-megawatt reactor may not be the answer for the community, councillor Terry Halifax said, but a smaller reactor could be.

Last month, Halifax and fellow councillor Jim McDonald attended a conference in Ottawa on small reactors, which was organized by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and the Canadian Nuclear Society. McDonald and Halifax presented a report on the event to council Nov. 28.

"I definitely think it could be an option at this point but we need more time," McDonald said later. "There are still a lot of questions that have to be answered before anything can go anywhere."

Companies are in the midst of designing Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and creating prototypes.

The SMRs are expected to be small enough, under 300 megawatts, to be made in a factory and transported by air.

But the industry will have to jump through hoops before SMRs can become a reality in Canada, according to John Stewart, director of communications for the Canadian Nuclear Association.

"There is a very elaborate regulatory and licensing regime and that licensing regime hasn't actually approved any of the designs yet. They are starting to work on that," Stewart said. "People are talking generally about a Small Modular Reactor operating somewhere in North America and being demonstrated to be workable in about eight to ten years from now ... and then them being more readily, commercially available 18 to 20 years from now."

Proponents of nuclear energy say it's a good option because the reactors don't emit greenhouse gases, it is a more reliable source of energy than wind or solar power and the cost is competitive with other forms of electricity generation. Also, SMRs will be scalable, so as the community grows the power supply could easily grow with it.

McDonald said he thinks the biggest hurdle to bringing nuclear energy to Inuvik would be public perception. When people think about nuclear energy they think about the 1986 disaster in Chernobyl or the recent Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in Japan, he said.

There are a lot of misconceptions about nuclear energy, Halifax added.

"But the reality is it's been providing safe, affordable power in Canada for 50 years," Halifax said. "As you begin to learn more about nuclear energy, you become a lot more confident in what it is."

On the other hand, critics have long opposed nuclear energy because of the radioactive waste created and the potential for more nuclear accidents.

The town will continue to look at all of its options, Halifax continued, adding he thinks the best solution for Inuvik is a company committing to developing the gas in the area.

"When you live in a forest and you have a wood stove it just makes sense to burn wood and we live in a sea of natural gas and the whole town is ready to go with natural gas, so that's the direction we should be going in," he said.

"That said, there is no reason why we shouldn't be looking for opportunity."

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