Editorial | Jamaica in the nuclear club

Nearly eight months ago, when it emerged that Jamaica was serious about adding nuclear power to its energy mix, this newspaper urged the Holness administration to initiate a robust debate on the idea.

For, with nuclear power, Jamaica would not only be entering what, for the Caribbean, is uncharted territory, but technology it proposed to use – small, modular nuclear plants – would be new and largely untested. It made sense, therefore, that Jamaica, if it decided to proceed, should do so with the best possible information after rigorous analysis, broad stakeholder involvement, and our eyes being wide open. Further, it needs to be clear how, and where, nuclear power would fall in the context of the Government’s policy position of having half of its power generated from renewables by 2030.

Unfortunately, not much has happened publicly with respect to our observations of last May. Recent developments make the matter most urgent, demanding serious engagement and clarity from the Government.

On December 2, on the sidelines of the COP28 conference on climate change and global warming, Jamaica joined 24 others countries (United States, Armenia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Republic of Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom) in pledging to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050. This was key, they said, to keeping the rise in global temperature to below 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, and for meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The declaration committed the signatories to “supporting the development and construction of nuclear reactors, such as small modular and other advanced reactors for power generation as well as wider industrial applications for decarbonisation, such as for hydrogen or synthetic fuels production”.

PARTY TO DECLARATION

Notably, no other country from Latin America and the Caribbean was party to the declaration. And it is not clear whether Jamaica has discussed the issue with its partners in the Caribbean Community. Ghana was the only sub-Saharan country that has thus far signed. The parties, however, urged other countries to come on board.

Prior to Jamaica’s embrace of this declaration, the only official government statements on nuclear power were three relatively brief remarks – two close behind each other at the end of April and in May – by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the technology and energy minister, Daryl Vaz. The third, by Mr Holness, was at his party’s annual conference in November.

At the April 30 opening of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association exposition, the prime minister merely disclosed that he had met with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), without providing details. “Jamaica has to explore new technology in nuclear energy, small nuclear plants to generate energy in Jamaica, which will be cheaper, more stable and more affordable,” he said.

Soon after, in updating Parliament on the activities of his ministry, Mr Vaz said the IAEA was helping Jamaica prepare a road map of nuclear energy, including mobilising international financing for the project.

“This way, we can ensure that as the first SMR (small modular reactor) and MMR (micro modular reactor) technologies commercialise across global markets, Jamaica is well positioned to take the lead and transition into this new era of energy production powered by a reliable, zero-carbon and cost-effective energy source, where we would no longer be dependent on costly fossil fuel imports or impacted by vulnerabilities of supply chain disruptions, a future where we can preserve our environment and ensure that our nation is resilient and self-sufficient,” he said.

CHEAP SOURCE OF ENERGY

At the governing Jamaica Labour Party’s conference in November, Mr Holness held up nuclear as a cheap source of energy that would lower the cost of power and help to end electricity poverty in the island.

“Advancements in cost and safety have made it imperative that we adopt small modular nuclear reactors for clean energy production,” he said, adding that Jamaica has had a nuclear facility for four decades - a reference to the 20-kilowatt Slowpoke II research reactor at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies that is used mostly in applications for environmental health, and plant and food safety.

Experts, however, point out that the research reactor at Mona is vastly different from what would be used in power generation.

While there have been a number of comments and limited analysis (mostly negative) in the press on the merits of using nuclear power in a small island, including cost effectiveness and safety of largely untested technology; as yet, there has been no formal, broad, national discourse on the matter. Policy documents have come from neither the energy ministry, the Office of Utilities Regulation, nor the Generation Procurement Entity, the body that, by law, issues requests for proposals for new electricity- generating capacity.

It would make sense, therefore, that the Government urgently table in Parliament a Green Paper on the topic, to kick-start a full debate on nuclear power. Further, a parliamentary committee, staffed with experts on nuclear power, should be established to begin hearings on the subject.

The time horizon the Government has set itself is seemingly ambitious, and the modular nuclear plants of the type it hopes to introduce are mostly in design and testing stages, rather than commercial operation.