Too small to be viable? The potential market for small modular reactors in mining and remote communities in Canada

摘要

Small modular reactors have been proposed as an alternative energy supply option for electrified processes in remote mining projects and communities in Canada, which currently have a high reliance on diesel fuel generators. This paper examines the size of this potential market for SMRs by quantifying the electricity demand for remote mining projects, late-stage exploration projects, and remote communities that are not connected to the central electricity grid. The paper also calculates the Levelized Cost Of Energy for SMRs and other energy alternatives including diesel, solar, wind, and a diesel-wind hybrid option.The analysis shows that the potential market for SMRs in Canada is currently too small to justify investment in manufacturing facilities for SMR construction and the cost of generating electricity using SMRs is significantly higher than the corresponding costs of electricity generation using diesel, wind, solar, or some combination thereof. These results suggest that SMRs will be too expensive for these proposed first-mover markets for SMRs in Canada and that there will not be a sufficient market to justify investing in manufacturing facilities for SMRs.