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The Decibel

Canada’s push for nuclear power

6/24/202625 min

The federal government wants Canada to get back into nuclear energy, pushing to increase nuclear power use and to build and export more Canadian-made nuclear reactors. For the first time in over three decades, a large nuclear reactor is being built in Canada.

But The Globe’s investigative reporter and data journalist Matt McClearn says there’s a reason these projects fell out of favour. There are famous, very deadly examples of nuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima, and these projects can be incredibly costly and time-consuming to construct.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

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Clips

Disaster Anywhere, Disaster Everywhere
Georgia Reactor Triples Budget
Ontario's High-Stakes First SMR
Why Nuclear Runs 90 Percent
Nuclear's Learning-By-Doing Problem

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Cheryl Sutherland· Host0:00

    [chime] Nuclear power is having a bit of a moment. [upbeat music] After years of governments around the world avoiding the technology, there's new interest in it, including here in Canada.

  2. Tim Hodgson· Soundbite0:13

    Ladies and gentlemen, built over seventy years, Canada's nuclear energy advantage is one of our greatest achievements and one of our greatest cards to play in the volatile world in which Canada finds itself.

  3. Cheryl Sutherland· Host0:27

    Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson unveiled a strategy on Monday to push the country towards using more nuclear power and to build and export more Canadian-made reactors. Ontario is in the midst of constructing a large nuclear reactor for the first time in over thirty years. But these projects are notorious for going over time and over budget. So today, I'm joined by Matthew McLern. He's an investigative reporter and data journalist with The Globe who writes about energy and natural resources. He'll tell us about the push for nuclear energy and why these projects are so hard to get off the ground. I'm Cheryl Sutherland, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. [upbeat music] Hi, Matt, great to have you in studio.

  4. Matthew McClearn· Guest1:19

    It's great to be here.

  5. Cheryl Sutherland· Host1:20

    So the federal government is pushing for Canada to become a hub of nuclear power generation. Can you give me a lay of the land before we talk about that? Like, how much nuclear power is being

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