In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge highlights a couple of unique perspectives on the question of Alberta’s nuclear future.
Alberta's premier has launched a new process to explore the possibility of adding nuclear capacity to Alberta's power mix. Between a growing population and expanding electrification, Alberta’s power demand is growing. But with the province’s ambition to be a hub for AI data centres — and with Ottawa’s Clean Electricity Regulations — Alberta needs to somehow balance a massive expansion to the power grid while also keeping emissions in check. That’s where nuclear energy could come in.
We’ll be joined by Scott Henuset, president and CEO of Energy Alberta — they’re hoping to build a standing nuclear power facility in northeastern Alberta. We’ll find out why they’re so optimistic about the potential for nuclear power in this province, and how they plan to overcome some of the resistance and concerns that still exist around this technology.
Plus, we’ll hear from Dr. Duane Bratt, professor of political science at Mount Royal University. Part of his research focuses on Canadian nuclear policy and he also teaches on the science and politics around nuclear energy. We’ll look at the history around this conversation in Alberta and get his perspective on whether the government is really serious this time about jumping on the nuclear bandwagon.
The Line: Alberta is the new provincial bureau of The Line, and will be released via its own standalone podcast channels for audio formats. This includes via this Substack, but also The Line: Alberta’s new channels on all major podcasting apps.
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A note on commenting: We have received some questions about why people who can comment on The Line’s main page cannot comment here. Good question! Here’s our best shot at giving a concise answer.
You don't need to be a paid subscriber to the Alberta version to receive/read/listen to what we produce.
You do need to be a paid subscriber to The Line: Alberta to comment.
A paid subscription at The Line DOES NOT transfer over to a paid subscription at The Line: Alberta. That's not possible within the Substack ecosystem, the lists are entirely separate. This also reflects the reality that while we expect both properties to appeal to much the same audience, it won’t be a perfect overlap. Conversely, for clarity, a paid subscription here doesn’t give paid access to The Line’s main content, either.
Since there isn’t a technical way to give paid Line subscribers paid privileges at The Line: Alberta, we will not paywall, ever, the Alberta content, for that reason. Our operations here will be funded in other ways. Signing up for a paid subscription is your way of showing us support, and it is appreciated, but it isn’t necessary to access the content.
If you do sign up for a paid account here, commenting will be a perk (of sorts), as will some early or free access to in-person events. But you will get the same content as everyone else.
Hope this helps!
We’ve posted this for a month now, and we’ll stop after this, so thanks for paying attention.
The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.
