DIANE CAMERON | INTERVIEW After several years working for a consultancy in Princeton
New Jersey, where she honed skills in business management and efficiency optimisation, she went back to school and earned a master’s in technology policy from MIT, a programme targeted to people like Cameron who want to marry technical skills with policy development. MIT also gave her an introduction to nuclear energy and
the role it could play as a tool to combat climate change. While at MIT, she worked under Ernest J. Moniz, who would later serve as US Secretary of Energy from 2013-2017. While Cameron came to the NRCan role already
understanding the value of nuclear, it was while she was there that she learned about Canada’s important contribution to the technology development. “In every objective measurable way,” she says, “Canada’s nuclear industry is a nuclear rock star.” In early days in role, as she investigated the terrain,
Cameron says, “I learned about the talent in Canada, the Canadian story. I was meeting with Canadians working in this sector and their accomplishments, yet the public policy discussions were not giving this a voice.” She says she observed that many people in the provinces
where nuclear is generated did not appreciate the benefits it delivers. “I think we owe it to have a much more public policy debate with Canadians about some of the really tough choices ahead of us.” Perhaps driven by that conviction, during her
tenure, Cameron was tireless in a campaign of personal appearances to spread information about the role of nuclear and the data that supported that. Darroch Harrop, an early recruit who joined Cameron’s
team in 2015, jokes that he and his colleagues tried to count how many webinars, seminars, podcasts and conferences she participated in but gave up the futile exercise. He says, as impressive as Cameron’s commitment to these appearances, it is her ability to build coalitions and
What is the OECD-NEA? The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is an inter-government agency that facilitates co-operation among countries with advanced nuclear technology infrastructures to seek excellence in nuclear safety, technology, science, environment and law. The objective of the Agency is to assist its member countries in maintaining and further
developing, through international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally-sound and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. It provides authoritative assessments and forges common understandings on key issues as input to government decisions as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development of low-carbon economies. ■
“get people to sit around the table” that helped drive the visibility and measurable progress during her time at NRCan.
“She is an alliance builder,” he says. “She finds the win- wins. The number of perspectives she brings together is huge.” Dan Brady, deputy director for the nuclear division
says Cameron’s ability to work inside government, across multiple ministries to create visibility for nuclear has been important in moving the conversation beyond energy industry stakeholders and has helped break log jams to get nuclear onto broader policy agendas. He talks about initiatives Cameron created specifically to prompt conversations, including one that drove required briefings for every deputy minister across government, consequently requiring the staffers to also get up to speed on the file.
Tracking the progress An early visible indicator of the work going on in Cameron’s department arose in the government’s response to a 2017 U
2019
Canada hosts the Clean Energy Ministerial in Vancouver, coincident to hosting the Gen IV International Forum. The NICE Future initiative now includes nine participant countries, and the conference integrates nuclear into several aspects of CEM. NICE Future distributes Breakthroughs, a book about nuclear innovation and its value in addressing climate change
2020 2020 2021
Canada’s SMR Action Plan, a follow-up to the roadmap, is released. It includes more than 500 committed actions by over 117 organisations
At CEM 2020, Canada and other participating NICE Future countries release a report and accompanying booklet Flexible Energy in Clean Energy Systems
Alberta signs on as the fourth province, along with Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick in a memorandum of understanding to work collaboratively toward development and deployment of Small Modular Reactors. Alberta and Saskatchewan represent greenfield interest in nuclear generation
2021
Diane Cameron leaves NRCan to join OECD-Nuclear Energy Agency as head of the Nuclear Technology Development and Economics Division
www.neimagazine.com | August 2021 | 19
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