New polling shows it might be time to move past unfounded and unrealistic fears of nuclear energy in BC, writes Margareta Dovgal.
British Columbia is going to run out of electricity unless it drastically reconsiders its energy plan. The economy in BC is decarbonizing at a scale surpassed only by the rising demand for energy that will need to be met.
There are many myths about energy in BC, but an Ipsos poll released today challenges them. According to Ipsos, 58 percent of people in British Columbia favour a review of the restrictions currently put in place by the province. Nuclear power has been sidelined here since well before the passage of the Clean Energy Act in 2010 that banned it outright in BC.
Opponents of nuclear power usually spread fears of the risk or cost of developing it, though there are few arguments against the capacity and capability of it as a source of energy.
Across the globe, jurisdictions with similar geographies and geophysical risks, namely earthquakes, have not shied away from successfully deploying nuclear technologies. I want to see an honest, pragmatic dialogue about British Columbia's energies that includes a fair shake for nuclear power.
Recent concerns about nuclear power precede Japan's Fukushima disaster of 2011, even if that is the most common bugbear cited by anti-nuclear voices.
Fukushima's reactor, in-fact, withstood the earthquake because it was designed and engineered with seismic activity in mind. It was the subsequent devastating tsunami that caused the disaster.
One of the changes wrought by the Fukushima disaster was a redesign of nuclear facilities to account for the newfound risks, and to introduce new safeguards for them.
Risk mitigation is not a zero-sum game. The choices we make in the public interest are not made without a complex blend of factors in-mind. There will always be unknowns, including those we can predict, and those that will inevitably take us by surprise.
We obviously cannot afford to be blind to the possibility of black swan events, or true magnitude of unlikely scenarios. What is certain, however, is that British Columbia and the wider world needs much more energy that we have the capacity to produce right now, and nuclear power makes meeting that demand much easier. The only alternative is overwhelming dependence on other jurisdictions that have their own electrification plans underway.
There is no denying the geopolitical consequences of the Fukushima disaster, which included countries like Germany falling back on carbon-intensive energy sources and phasing out their nuclear facilities. Russia's dominance in energy export emboldened them to invade Ukraine. The subsequent cut-off of Russian natural gas left Germany and many other EU countries without a reliable source of affordable energy – with many regretting the turn away from the affordable and clean baseload afforded by nuclear.
BC is in an advantageous position because the only real barrier to nuclear development is social acceptance. Opposition groups, among them many self-described environmentalists, have worked hard to keep the option off the table.
The current BC NDP government is sympathetic to these concerns, and senior political experts routinely advise clients in the energy sector to not even bother bringing it up, as the current government is unwilling to touch nuclear power.
It is not a strictly partisan issue, as it was the former BC Liberal government that passed the Clean Energy Act back in 2010, though it was notable that the BC Conservatives have been willing to publicly endorse nuclear energy.
One school thought assumes that public opinion only exists within a bubble and politicians can only respond to what they believe the public is willing to hear. That is a completely false premise.
On some occasions, a single brave voice can successfully challenge preconceptions and set a new tone in public discourse. Right, now the myths about nuclear energy need to undergo some rigorous scrutiny to ensure BC can enjoy energy security into the future.
BC's hydroelectric capacity is being squeezed to its limits, and even if we can get enough of them built, renewable sources like wind and solar suffer from intermittency. Energy storage continues to be a challenge, making it necessary to evaluate every option on the table. Without affordable and abundant energy, BC's most productive sectors will be literally left in the dark and we will be poorer for it.
Ontario has embraced nuclear energy for decades to meet its electricity demands, and is a model for BC to consider. The Ipsos poll reveals the BC public is ready to explore diverse solutions for the incoming energy crisis, and that should include options like LNG and nuclear power.
Building nuclear reactors is a costly affair, and that has been a major deterrent to developing nuclear power, but once operational, nuclear energy is cheap and abundant. BC is also close to Canada's readily available sources of uranium, which removes a major impediment to developing new nuclear facilities.
Ignoring this option risks leaving the province dependent on energy imports, with all the economic and environmental drawbacks that entails.
Ultimately, we stand at a crossroads. Today’s Ipsos poll points to a noteworthy shift in public opinion, providing an opportunity for BC to reassess its energy strategy. As the province looks to secure a reliable, sustainable power supply for the future, nuclear energy is a viable option that deserves serious consideration. It’s time to move past outdated perceptions and engage in a pragmatic dialogue about how best to meet BC’s 21st-century energy needs.
Margareta Dovgal is the Managing Director of Resource Works.