Canada has an emphasis on minimizing their carbon footprint. Recently they committed to $20 million for the construction and distribution of small modular nuclear power plants. These single, small, modular power plants would be able to produce up to 300MWe (megawatt of electric capacity). For reference, that would be enough to power 150K to 200K homes. The benefit of these units would certainly be the transportation flexibility for more isolated communities with minimal waste.
The sectors looking to capitalize on these mini nuclear reactors would be coal fired utilities, mining/construction, and residential/commercial heating. Since Canada is one of the largest producers of Uranium, an element crucial to nuclear power, it makes sense why Canada would want to press on towards localized nuclear power. During 2018, they already utilized 15% nuclear power across the county, and are looking to actively increase that percentage. The quickest benefit would be with any coal powered units – the coal fired units would be “unplugged” in order to “plug in” the mini reactor once on site. Much of the existing hardware would be reused in much of the same fashion.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/small-modular-reactors-nuclear-smr-1.5187469
