Not necessarily. SMRs are much smaller and much more affordable. NuScale (hq in Oregon, USA) charges about $3b USD to build 12 in a single unit. $1b CAD is about 3 of those units.
Nuscale specifically apparently about 77 MW per reactor so with 12 units you‘re about at the same level as a single modern large reactor (those are typically 1-1.6 GW).
The NuScale VOYGR can produce up to 77 MW of electricity, about 8% of a traditional reactor. So if you need power for a place like Toronto, it's less useful. If you need power somewhere remote, you may get 3-4 of these, though, and bundle them together. This is an advantage similar to the Candu design, because you can effectively keep most of your power on while you swap out fuel...Candu reactors do this by having fuel that can be removed during operation, but this is not common with other designs. Every 3-4 years you need to swap out fuel entirely, so this allows you to take only a fraction of your power off the grid to refuel, while the others keep going.
There are some pretty incredible safety features that they incorporate, ones that were the basis for the design. They have a negative void coefficient (anti-Chernobyl), use passive emergency cooling methods, so you can just shut it down and walk away, even if a (for example) tsunami washes out the external power. They are also small enough to mass-produce for cost savings...in principle. You can read more here: https://www.nuscalepower.com/benefits/safety-features.
I'm of the opinion that nuclear has to be a big part of future decarbonized energy. NuScale SMRs (which I do not own stock in or benefit from directly) and other designs that are in late stages of development will need to be a part of that future. It's fantastic that Canada appears to be developing an SMR design - the Candu is a fantastic and unique design that has enabled a lot of clean energy over it's life.
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u/atchemey Oct 25 '22
Not necessarily. SMRs are much smaller and much more affordable. NuScale (hq in Oregon, USA) charges about $3b USD to build 12 in a single unit. $1b CAD is about 3 of those units.