Ontario to start construction of Canada’s first SMR

• 2 days ago (2025-05-09)
• David Flin

North America 1043 Nuclear 682

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Ontario’s provincial government has given approval for Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to start construction at Darlington power plant of Canada’s first SMR.

The SMR will be a 300 MW BWRX-300 from GE Hitachi , and Darlington will be the first construction of this type in the world. Officials say that the Canadian companies involved in the project will have the potential to export components to other countries that build this type of SMR.

This will be the first of four such reactors that OPG plans to build at the site, at a total cost of €13.4 billion. The estimated cost of the initial reactor is €4.9 billion, including €1 billion of infrastructure to be shared across the project.

Preparation work has already begun at the project site, immediately east of the existing nuclear plant along the Lake Ontario shoreline.

It has been estimated that Ontario’s power demand will increase 75 per cent by 2050. Stephen Lecce, Ontario's Minister of Energy and Mines, said: “As it stands today, we just don’t have the supply to meet that demand.” He added that 80 per cent of the project spending will go to Canadian companies, 15 per cent to European and Asian companies, and 5 per cent to US companies, mostly for GE Hitachi’s design.

Construction is due to be completed by 2029, and connection to the grid is scheduled for 2030.