Demand for electricity is surging globally — and it’s projected to grow even more as society shifts away from gas-powered cars and heating to electric systems, and as intensifying heat waves drive the need for more air conditioning.

This spike is so significant that the International Energy Agency has dubbed this the “Age of Electricity.“

Accompanying this trend is increasing interest in small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs — a new generation of nuclear power plants that have long been hyped as a climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands without the intermittency of renewable technologies.

Canada is set to become the first country in the G7 with civilian SMRs. The government of Ontario has approved a $15 billion plan to build four of these reactors outside Toronto. But while small modular nuclear reactors are a functioning technology — they power nuclear vessels, and Russia has used them on barges — they have yet to be successfully deployed for civilian use.

The World’s Carolyn Beeler spoke with Chris Bataille, a fellow at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, about the state of SMR technology and the perspective of nuclear power among the Canadian public.