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Nuclear Energy Working Committee reconstituted

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaica is now developing its nuclear energy intentions with help from Canada to examine small reactor installation to power the national grid bringing cheaper energy cost to consumers.

These small reactor installations can unlock International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assistance at no direct cost to Jamaica as well as technical assistance in drafting a Jamaican nuclear regulatory framework. Before any commercial decision can be made, Jamaica must have the independent regulatory architecture to oversee it and will be getting help in this regard from the IAEA.

The IAEA is an intergovernmental organization promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons.

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Science, Technology & Special Projects, Dr. Andrew Wheatley, who made the disclosure in his Sectoral Debate presentation in parliament on Tuesday, disclosed that the Nuclear Energy Working Committee has been reconstituted under his portfolio with a clear mandate to progress the structured assessment of nuclear energy’s viability for Jamaica and to advance the foundational actions that the programme requires.

Foundational action imperative

Minister Wheatley pointed to certain foundational actions, which are needed to be done if Jamaica is to experience its nuclear energy ambitions, which he declared as “not capital-intensive but institutional, legislative and diplomatic. They include the development of a public consultation and sensitization programme because no responsible government announces a nuclear energy intention without first engaging its people honestly as well as the initiation of negotiations for a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Canada.”

This agreement is required to unlock the full technology-transfer scope of an earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was inked in October 2024 by Government of Jamaica and two of Canada’s premier federal nuclear institutions, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

The MOU covers civil nuclear power explicitly including Small Modular Reactors as well as nuclear medicine and industrial and agricultural applications. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories operates the Chalk River facility, one of the world’s most advanced nuclear research centres, and both institutions are actively engaged in Canada’s own domestic SMR programme. 

Jamaica, Minister Wheatley declared now has a formal nuclear partner at the highest level of international nuclear capability noting that through the SLOWPOKE research reactor at the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus maintains active IAEA reporting functions, provides environmental monitoring and radiation protection services, and has for decades been Jamaica’s bridge to the international nuclear community. 

According to Dr. Wheatley, “Jamaica’s nuclear assessment converge on Small Modular Reactors as the appropriate technology for a grid of Jamaica’s scale, and on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer model with a Power Purchase Agreement as the commercial structure — keeping capital costs off the Government’s balance sheet while securing clean, reliable baseload power….This is not fantasy. This is the energy pathway that serious small nations are pursuing. And Jamaica, with its existing research infrastructure at ICENS, its partnership with Canada, and its reconstituted Working Committee, will seek to position itself to be among them.”