Good afternoon, distinguished Chair.

I want to thank the committee for inviting me here today to speak. It is my honour to do so.

I want to take the opportunity to also thank the clerk and the staff for their support in getting me here.

As background, I'm a professor in nuclear engineering, and I lead a multi-university, multi-million dollar small modular reactor training program. As part of my tenure at McMaster, I have taken students to the very top-performing nuclear reactors in the world, and I've taken them to the Chernobyl and Fukushima sites as well. It's all in an effort to improve their understanding of the technical and social implications of their work and their research.

I have presented on the topic of climate change at many international events and for all levels of audiences. Until recently, many of these talks focused on the almost insurmountable challenges that climate represents to our society. Some economic forecasts predict that because of climate deterioration, the quality of life of today's kids will be less than that which we enjoy.

I would like to provide a quote from James Lovelock, the famed inventor of Gaia theory, which describes the relationship of humans with the planet. He's also a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and he is 102 years old. He said recently, “I would say the biosphere and I are both in the last 1% [of] our lives.” One of the most pre-eminent inventors and scientists of our time does not like our chances and, for many years, I agreed.

In recent years, though, I have changed. I have rediscovered that my job as a professor is to be inspiring, to elevate students to learn, and to help them succeed in meeting these kinds of challenges. The objective has been to convince them to not give up, that we have hope and that there is a solution—to stop the paralysis that can occur when a problem seems too difficult to solve.

Today, I truly believe there is a solution.

It is a solution that has been proven to cut CO2 while improving GDP. An excellent example is a nuclear energy-based solution in France during the 1970s, which showed that a country can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by over 50% and simultaneously increase its GDP by 50%. Such a solution, combined with hydro and new technologies like wind, solar and electric vehicles, is a portfolio that can absolutely meet the challenges posed by the climate today.

In Canada we can be leaders, because it is a technology well suited to our geography and our expertise. Small modular reactors can aid in electricity generation, but they can also be an enabling technology to allow remote communities the opportunity for agriculture, desalination, education and quality-of-life improvements that do not exist today.

Counter to this are public concerns related to waste, safety and the economics of small modular reactors. These ongoing concerns highlight the need for a robust national dialogue on nuclear energy. Such a campaign should not only provide the public with a fact-based analysis, but also assess the impacts of not acting on this climate-friendly energy solution.

This campaign could also address the fundamental needs for human talent by expanding the opportunities for training and development of young people. For example, this week at McMaster, we hosted a small group of young graduate students for hands-on training on our reactor. This was funded by NSERC as part of a training program that I run on SMRs.

I am frequently asked, however, by other universities and other young people throughout Canada, why they are not included in this program. The simple answer is that even with the $2.5 million of funding I have in this program, I can dedicate that to only a relatively small cohort of people who can participate. Thus, to establish a robust SMR university environment, a coordinated and sustained program is needed beyond our existing funding opportunities.

In closing, there is no magic technology that will provide us with relief from the climate problem, but that does not mean we are hopeless. There are solutions to climate issues, and elements have already been proven at the scale that we need. By expanding the investments necessary in the technologies and in the universities to help deliver the human capacity for these projects, I think we can have hope.

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