COUNTRY PAVILLIONS | WNE2025 Canada: Life extension and new build plays
Canada continues to embrace nuclear technology with plans to build both large units and SMRs as well as execute a life extension programme for much of its existing nuclear fleet
About one sixth of Canada’s electricity supply currently comes from nuclear power, with 17 reactors operating at four plants and providing 12.7 GWe of generation. The operable units, eight at Bruce, four each at Darlington and Pickering and one at Point Lepreau are all CANDU designs of various generations and outputs ranging from 516 MWe to 881 MWe. Of these units, 16 are in Ontario and one in New Brunswick. Canada has plans to build both new large-scale nuclear
capacity and small modular reactors. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) approved construction of GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GVH’s) BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at the Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) in Clarington, Ontario. OPG received a Licence to Construct the first of four planned BWRX-300s at Darlington from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in April 2025. It is expected to be North America’s first grid-scale SMR once commissioned, which is scheduled by the end of the decade. Early site preparation work at Darlington has already
been completed and all four units planned for the site are expected to be operating by 2035. The total project cost is put at CAD20.9bn ($15.06bn), according to Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce told a news briefing. The planned reactors will help meet what provincial officials expect to be a 75% rise in Ontario’s power demand by 2050. Earlier this year BWXT secured a contract for manufacturing
a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for the BWRX-300 SMR, part of a series of contracts with OPG worth some $694m which includes the life extension project at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station for which BWXT will produce 48 steam generators. The Pickering Life Extension Program is expected to extend the operation of Pickering units 5-8, also known as the Pickering B reactor fleet, by 30 years once completed by the mid-2030s. Pickering, with its four operating reactors, provides around 10% of Ontario’s electricity needs. In 2015 Ontario approved life extension of four units at
Above: Darlington NPP is home to four reactor units and is the location for a new SMR development using GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 design.
Darlington and six units at Bruce as part of a C$26bn 15-year programme. Darlington 2 started its refurbishment outage in October 2016 and was returned to commercial operation in June 2020. Darlington unit 3 was returned to commercial operation in July 2023 and Bruce unit 6 began refurbishment in January 2020 and was restarted in August 2023. Alongside refurbishments, Energy Alberta is also proposing
to build a 1000 MWe nuclear generating station in the Peace River area of Northern Alberta based on two to four units of the Candu Monark design. The facility would be licensed to produce up to 4,800 MWe. Canadian Minister of Energy & Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, announced that the Government of Canada has signed a preliminary agreement with AtkinsRéalis to support development and modernisation of a new large-scale CANDU nuclear reactor, such as the Monark, with a loan to finance half of the design project. Candu Energy, part of AtkinsRéalis, has also recently concluded Preferred Vendor Agreements (PVAs) with eight companies to support the development of new Candu reactors in Canada and overseas. Additional SMR initiatives
Above: Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is also subject to an on-going life extension programme. Source: OPG
are also underway. In May, for example, US-based Westinghouse Electric Company’s signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Pabineau and Eel River Bar First Nations to investigate new-build projects at the Port of Belledune in New Brunswick with an initial focus on the AP300 SMR.
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