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The Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Suppliers Association (SIMSA) hosted the first Westinghouse Supplier Symposium in Saskatchewan, on Friday November 8 in Saskatoon – it was an outstanding 3-day event.

There were about 20 senior leadership and procurement persons participating from Westinghouse, in a series of events including; 2-days of shop tours, an evening reception with the participation of Cameco’s CEO Tim Gitzel, plus Government and other mining company persons; and a full day supplier event with nearly 200 people in attendance. The 180 SIMSA member companies attending, was the largest amount of any of the global supplier symposiums held by Westinghouse.

 Jacques Besnainou of Westinghouse addresses SIMSA members and others

The Friday event was co-mc’d Eric Anderson the Executive Director of SIMSA, and  Sheldon Wuttunee, CEO of the Saskatchewan First Nations Natural Resources Centre of Excellence (COE).

Sheldon Wuttunee and his daughter providing opening comments

Westinghouse is demonstrating a serious effort, to connect with Saskatchewan suppliers.  This should not really be a surprise though, as Cameco acquired a 49-percent interest in Westinghouse and are – at least from our perspective – the active owners of Westinghouse. And, Cameco is a great partner of the Saskatchewan supply chain, and has been a strategic partner to SIMSA.  So much so, that if Cameco had a major issue at site, many of our members would drop everything to go help and settle-up on the paper-work later.  In short, there is a trust and respect between Cameco and the supply chain. And from what we have seen so far, this tradition is now spilling over into Westinghouse.

A couple of key things to note:

• Their idea of modular being things that fit on a semi, not a barge, which enables local manufacturing for Saskatchewan reactors
• They stated that things made in Saskatchewan could also become global inventory/supply
• Their various reactors from a 300 MW SMR up to a 1200 MW large reactor (the AP1000) have a lot of interchangeable components, thus allowing for more manufacturing opportunities stemming from existing designs
• They sent the right people to investigate local suppliers and conducted detailed shop tours
• They shared far more detail than any other nuclear vendor
• The AP1000 is N38 – so dozens have been built are being built already, allowing for cheaper construction cost on subsequent builds due to experience
• Westinghouse is a Canadian owned company, given Brookfield’s 51% ownership and Cameco’s 49%
• It was clear that Cameco is definitely expecting Westinghouse to establish a Saskatchewan supply chain

The event began with opening comments from Jacques Besnainou, Chief Commercial Officer of Westinghouse Electric Company. Jacques’ sense of humour and long-term friendship with Cameco’s Tim Gitzel were readily apparent.

Jacques Besnainou

The event then transitioned to Cameco’s Sean Quinn, Senior Vice-President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. At the reception held the evening before, Tim Gitzel mingled with attendees.

Sean Quinn

Following Cameco were Mike Crabtree, CEO of the Saskatchewan Research Council and Rhea Brown, Executive Vice President, Customer Experience & Procurement at SaskPower.

Fabricia Pineiro Tresierra, VP Operating Plant Services, Canada gave an overview of Westinghouse’s Canadian operations.  It is important to also note that she is also the Chair of the Organisation of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI) – SIMSA’s partner in the Ready4SMR program.

Fabricia Pineiro Tresierra

SIMSA has a tradition of including external speakers at its events – giving critical groups a platform to reach a new audience. As such, SIMSA was excited to highlight an emerging partnership, which involves a focus on STEM instruction in our public schools. STEM is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – which is basically everything our sector is about.

Joining the event to share a few words was David Crowell.  For more than three decades, David has worked in Saskatoon and area schools, supporting STEM education, through his role as a teacher and administrator.  So, David’s work, forms the building blocks of our future employee base.

David’s work has earned him numerous awards, including a Governor General’s medal and the 2023 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

David’s contributions also include a STEM loaner program, that serves 7000 students and their teachers in Saskatoon Public Schools, and he also recently contributed to Canada’s G20 presentation on Education in Brazil.

Following David was a heartfelt and passionate presentation by Rita Baranwal – Senior Vice President, AP300 SMR.

Rita Baranwal

The event then switched from an SMR to an MMR, with Mike Valore – Senior Director, eVinci Sales & Marketing.

Mike Valore

The suppliers’ highlight of the event, were two detailed and suitable presentations by Sean Jones – Senior Director, Energy Systems Supply Chain.  He detailed how they “walk hand in hand” with suppliers to close gaps.

Sean Jones

Sean covered how to work with Westinghouse, how they buy things, things they need, and the like. He also highlighted the shop tours Westinghouse conducted earlier in the week.

Shop tours of SIMSA members

Modular concepts

The event was concluded by additional networking, pre-scheduled B2B meetings are focused topics, and eVinci tours at the SRC.

After the event, Westinghouse shared their complete presentation deck with attendees.

The full event agenda is on the following page.

SIMSA is a non-profit organization representing 360 Saskatchewan-based supplier-members, who provide goods and services to the industrial, mining, and energy sectors. SIMSA is currently the only organization that represents suppliers that have a physical presence in Saskatchewan, with most also having their global headquarters in the province. SIMSA’s membership represents over 34,200 employees in Saskatchewan and over $17-billlion in annual sales.

The event’s detailed agenda was: