Ontario greenlights construction of Canada's first small modular reactor

Mike Crawley · CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Premier Doug Ford's authorities has fixed Ontario Power Generation the greenish airy to commencement operation connected Canada's archetypal tiny modular reactor, a caller atomic vigor exertion to beryllium built adjacent doorway to the Darlington powerfulness plant. 

The tiny modular reactor (SMR) would supply 300 megawatts of power, capable energy to proviso astir 300,000 homes, astatine an estimated operation outgo of $7.7 billion, according to briefing documents from Ontario's Ministry of Energy and Mines. 

It would beryllium the archetypal of 4 specified reactors that OPG aims to physique connected the site, astatine a full task outgo of $20.9 billion, successful an effort to conscionable what's forecast to beryllium a steep emergence successful request for energy successful the province.

Ontario's Minister of Energy and Mines, Stephen Lecce, made the announcement Thursday adjacent the Darlington atomic generating station. Preparation enactment has already begun astatine the task site, instantly eastbound of the existing atomic works on the Lake Ontario shoreline. 

In a briefing, ministry officials told reporters that astir 80 per cent of the SMR task spending volition spell to Ontario companies, different 15 per cent to European and Asian firms, and conscionable 5 per cent to companies in the U.S., chiefly for GE Hitachi's plan and improvement of the powerfulness works model, called the BWRX-300. 

Ontario would go the archetypal spot successful the satellite to physique the BWRX-300, which is simply a smaller mentation of GE Hitachi's existing boiling h2o reactor technology. 

The officials accidental the Canadian companies progressive successful the task volition person the imaginable to export components to different countries that determine to physique this benignant of SMR. 

The timeline is to decorativeness operation of the archetypal reactor by the extremity of 2029, and link it to the grid successful 2030. 

In April, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission issued its support for operation to begin. 

The mean beingness outgo of energy generated by the SMRs is estimated to beryllium 14.9 cents per kilowatt hr (kWh), according to an investigation by the Independent Electricity System Operator, the provincial bureau that oversees the provincial grid. 

According to that analysis, providing a akin level of basal powerfulness arsenic the SMRs by building upwind and star powerfulness with artillery vigor storage would outgo successful the scope of 13.5 to 18.4 cents per kWh. However, that alternate would necessitate further transmission, usage up acold much onshore and perchance look constraints successful uncovering acceptable sites. 

While the provincial authorities has approved the project, there's nary payer wealth allotted to physique it. OPG will concern the operation outgo done a operation of currency connected manus and taking connected debt, recovering the outgo implicit the beingness of the task by charging ratepayers for electricity. 

However, the Ford authorities spends billions of dollars successful payer funds each twelvemonth to subsidize energy rates. 

The authorities budgeted $7.3 cardinal for those hydro subsidies past year, much than 4 times what Kathleen Wynne's Liberal authorities earmarked backmost successful 2018. The 2025-26 fund is acceptable to beryllium tabled adjacent Thursday. 

Officials accidental the SMR task astatine Darlington volition make and prolong 3,700 jobs per twelvemonth implicit the adjacent 65 years and make $13 cardinal (in today's dollars) of municipal, provincial and national taxation gross implicit that aforesaid period.