Empirical application of Kingdon’s three streams theory to the small modular reactors deployment policy idea in Saskatchewan, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
By utilizing the case study approach, the primary question this study seeks to address is “Why is the window of opportunity open for SMR deployment as a climate change mitigation strategy in Saskatchewan?” This paper was situated within John Kingdon’s three streams framework as a lens to guide the analysis and evaluation of factors affecting and shaping policies including events, roles, and interactions among actors, the public mood, and indicators, and other elements within the environmental and energy policy domain in Saskatchewan. The following specific questions were asked and reported based on the three streams to help answer the main research question. Problem Stream – What are the pressing climate change and energy issues identified in Saskatchewan that demand exploring SMRs as a potential solution? Policy Stream – How have provincial energy policies and regulations changed over the years to allow for SMR development and deployment in Saskatchewan? Politics Stream – What political factors including stakeholder interests and the public mood influenced the opening of the perceived window of opportunity for SMR deployment in Saskatchewan? Through comprehensive document analysis and semi-structured interviews with actors such as government officials, academics, environmentalists, and energy policy experts the factors and processes affecting policy formulation within the environmental and energy policy domain of Saskatchewan are analyzed to answer the above research questions. The findings indicate the three streams are currently flowing in Saskatchewan, and the window of opportunity for SMR deployment is opened due to the timely alignment of the streams: the recognition of climate change and clean energy transition challenges (problem stream), the readiness and feasibility of SMRs (policy stream) and the favourable political landscape and public support (politics stream). Findings from this study potentially provide valuable insights pertaining to the conditions under which Saskatchewan might consider deploying SMRs as part of its broader policy agenda of achieving energy, climate change and environmental sustainability. Additionally, apart from serving as a significant reference of lesson drawing for other jurisdictions, the findings can serve as a guideline for the Government of Saskatchewan in budget allocation to ensure the right investments are made regarding SMRs deployment to avoid waste of resources. It is recommended that to sustain the momentum for SMR deployment and subsequent adoption, the government of Saskatchewan through its entities- SaskPower and Crown Investment Corporation must continue with their Indigenous and public engagement processes, to keep educating and addressing costs and environmental concerns among sections of the population. Keywords: Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), Kingdon’s Three Streams, Saskatchewan, Window of Opportunity, Climate Change, Clean Energy Transition
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.013 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.008 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.013 | 0.008 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".