Two of North America’s largest utilities are teaming up to advance the rollout of new advanced nuclear technology in the U.S. and Canada, the companies announced Tuesday.
Under their new partnership, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) plan to coordinate design, licensing and deployment of advanced reactors “as part of the broader efforts to achieve a carbon-free energy future,” the utilities said in a joint statement Tuesday.
The collaboration agreement has no funding exchange, but will help “reduce the financial risk that comes from development of innovative technology, as well as future deployment costs,” the statement said.
The federally-run TVA is already exploring the possibility of building a small modular reactor (SMR) at its Clinch River site near Knoxville, Tenn. OPG is considering a similar project at its Darlington nuclear site in Bowmanville, Ontario.
As for where the back end would fit into this new collaboration, TVA CEO Jeffrey Lyash told Exchange Monitor during a joint press conference Tuesday that the utility, “much like OPG, store[s] all the fuel we have ever used safely at our facilities.”
“In the longer term, I think these are issues for Canada and the U.S. to make decisions on — either long term disposal or recycling in the interest of the nation,” Lyash said. “I know that dialogue continues in the U.S., I think it probably does in Canada as well.”
“I think an important part of the collaboration is to work on innovative ideas and solutions that will ultimately make this issue even smaller than what it is right now,” OPG CEO Ken Hartwick told Exchange Monitor. “I think we all have to recognize that every form of energy produces some byproduct or waste. In our partnership with TVA, we’ll work to minimize what we’re doing, to the benefit of allowing other parts of the economy to electrify, which is where the real climate benefit comes from.”
