Business View Magazine | September 2022

42 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 Generation (OPG) in Canada and others in China, South Korea, Romania, and Argentina. Other partners outside the CANDU industry include GE Hitachi, NuScale, and B&W, who have or are currently working on SMR projects with Stern Labs. Like most other companies in the nuclear industry, Stern Laboratories is mindful of the perceptions surrounding nuclear in the public arena. “The nuclear industry has its ups and downs,” says Hadaller. “At times, it is buoyant; at others, accidents set things back significantly.” He believes that the world is at the cusp of the nuclear industry moving forward because of the innovative designs emerging. He acknowledges, “CO2 emissions are a problem, and we can only do so much with wind and solar. Nuclear is a non-emitting generator, and the opportunities are quite good.” Ontario stands out as a light on a hill in this regard. Sixty percent of the province’s electricity is nuclear. “If we’re going to adopt EVs, green steel, and green concrete, we’re going to need a lot more green electricity, and that’s where nuclear comes in… something even the government recognizes.” Another emerging issue driving the nuclear narrative is geopolitical instability. For example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions have placed Europe in a precarious position because it depends on Russia for a significant percentage of its petroleum energy supplies. Nuclear presents a unique solution to these kinds of scenarios. “Security of supply is the current major concern countries are facing,” explains Hadaller. “If you turn off a petroleum pipeline or there’s no wind to turn windmills or sunlight to charge solar arrays, energy shortages are near instant. With nuclear, you have two years of fuel available on-site at any given time, which completely solves the security of supply issue.”