‘Great interest and broad support’ for nuclear energy in Alberta: panel

Workers assemble a new building at the Darlington nuclear facility in Courtice, Ont. on Thursday, October 30, 2014. Ontario Power Generation and the province are planning three more small modular reactors at the site of the Darlington nuclear power plant. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Alberta’s government is reviewing best practice recommendations for potentially adopting nuclear energy to power the province in the coming decades.

After months of public engagement, overall discussion showed a “great interest and broad support” for nuclear energy development in the province, according to the Nuclear Energy Engagement and Advisory Panel.

“Electricity demands continue to rise, driven by increased electrification, population and industrial growth. Ensuring electricity is affordable, reliable and sustainable will be critical in meeting these growing demands,” Chair Chantelle de Jonge wrote in the panel’s report, which was made public Wednesday.

De Jonge, an MLA and the parliamentary secretary for the ministry of affordability and utilities, led the six-person panel. The group heard from some 5,500 people through two public surveys.

Five in-person public sessions and six webinars were held in Peace River, Fort McMurray, Bonnyville, Calgary and Edmonton between August 2025 and February 2026.

Energy Alberta is behind a potential nuclear project in Peace River but was put on regulatory pause last year pending further consultations.

On Wednesday, affordability and utilities minister Nathan Neudorf told reporters the government was nowhere near a “full consultation stage” with the company.

“They’ve hit a number of the initial approval thresholds to keep moving forward at some point that will engage the provincial government for our duty to consult with First Nations,” he said.

“Beyond them, there are others that have expressed interest, some in the realm of the small modular reactors.”

The province is moving toward developing a “nuclear framework” by the beginning of 2027, he added, but it would be another decade by the time a project hits the ground due to federal regulations.

Public feedback

Because the public surveys were voluntary and vulnerable to self-selection bias, the panel noted they were not statistically representative data and instead a tool for open dialogue.

“We went to communities that were most likely to host a potential nuclear facility of some shape and size, and they turned out in very good numbers for the relative size and travel distance,” Neudorf said.

Participant concerns depended on their background. Municipality representatives worried about infrastructural challenges, emergency response plans and how they’d be taxed for potential generating stations.

Indigenous participants raised Treaty rights, inclusion of First Nations leadership and the long-term effects of nuclear energy.

Panel advice includes a heavy focus on early education on nuclear energy and its potential use in the province, starting at the primary school level and extending to post-secondary institutions to establish nuclear energy-specific programs and training.

Collaboration with First Nations and Métis representatives, regulators, industry experts and academics on developing training resources and a provincial nuclear emergency response plan was also on the list.

The province is also told to defer to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in keeping Albertans informed about long-term management of nuclear waste and regulations.

Kickstarting nuclear projects would also require clarification of which resources are needed in communities to start building generating stations, the panel says, as well as a clear path for how stations would align with federal policy and qualify for federal funding.

Neudorf added that private investment has shifted the economic feasibility of nuclear development in the province in recent years.

“The global economy has changed, and the amount of interest globally for nuclear development is multiple times what it was before … While it is costly to construct nuclear, the long-term running of a plant that could last for 100 years has a relative affordability.”

Currently, 15 per cent of Canada’s power comes from nuclear generating stations in Ontario and New Brunswick, according to the CNSC.