Canada Reignites Its Nuclear Energy Ambitions
- Media Manager
- Jul 31, 2023
- 2 min read
Oil Price.com
Written By: Haley Zaremba
Published: August 1st, 2023
Canada’s decades-long nuclear energy slump is over. While nuclear power currently supplies about 15% of Canada’s energy, industry growth has been stalled out for years thanks to fears about safety and high entry costs. Ontario is about to break ground on the country’s first large scale nuclear project since the early nineties – and that’s just the first step of what is set to be a large and ambitious plan to start a nuclear renaissance in the country’s most populous province.
Newfound public and private support for nuclear power represents a marked turnaround for the Canadian energy sector. Just last year, the federal government was critiqued for its lack of support for nuclear energy when the country’s green bond framework failed to include the controversial power source. However, widespread energy security challenges and price shocks stemming from Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and its subsequent energy war with Europe have forced many governments – including Canada – to reevaluate their priorities.
And Canada isn’t just returning to the nuclear power sector, it’s returning with a bang. The 2023 Federal Budget shows strong support for nuclear power, including nuclear energy as eligible for its refundable Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for clean electricity and a 30% ITC for clean technology manufacturing. The question of whether or not to classify nuclear as a clean and/or renewable energy has been a subject of major debate and no shortage of contention on the world stage. In Europe, a drawn out back-and-forth has been building for over a year over this topic, as it will have major implications for how money – and we’re talking about a lot of money – is allocated in the bloc’s decarbonization plans.
