| Nuclear power
Tunnel boring machine – nicknamed Harriett Brooks after Canada’s first female nuclear physicist – will be used in the construction phase of OPG’s SMR project. Photo: OPG
On the ground, OPG says the project team has been busy preparing for “this pivotal moment”, including advancing site preparation work and procuring long-lead components. Since autumn 2022, dozens of trucks have been relocating clean soil across the site to level out the areas intended for the future SMR units. Crews have also been busy installing various utilities, including fire lines, water lines, sanitary sewer lines, and network cabling. Construction of buildings, including the on-site fabrication building, is also progressing.
OPG’s SMR project team at BWXT’s Cambridge, Ontario, facility to observe the beginning of fabrication for cladding of the first SMR’s reactor pressure vessel. Photo: OPG
Meanwhile, says OPG, the team continues to excavate for the reactor building shaft—a critical milestone — in preparation for construction of the reactor building.
To support a fleet of SMRs, the Darlington New Nuclear Project team has worked to secure several long-leadtime items, notably the reactor pressure vessel. As the SMR’s largest component, the vessel – over 30 m in length and 6 m in diameter, and weighing 550 tonnes – will contain the reactor core, coolant, and support structures.
OPG has worked to secure long- leadtime items for its SMR project, including the reactor pressure vessel, shown here. Photo: OPG
The generator rotor has been forged and is now undergoing pre-machining. It’s expected to arrive at the project site by summer 2027. Later this summer, the project’s tunnel boring machine — named “Harriett Brooks” after Canada’s first female nuclear physicist — will arrive from Germany for storage until assembly in early 2026. The machine will be used to drill the condenser cooling water tunnel, which will be 3.4 km long and 6.05 m in diameter. Candu Energy Inc., an AtkinsRéalis company, has been awarded a $450 million “execution contract” by OPG, for the first SMR unit at Darlington. The scope includes project management, licensing, engineering, design, procurement, construction support and commissioning, as well as digital delivery capabilities for both the nuclear island and balance of plant. “Our trusted relationship with OPG supporting hydropower assets and refurbishing CANDU reactors at Darlington and Pickering will support this project’s successful completion by 2030,” the company asserts. Nicolle Butcher would seem to agree: “AtkinsRéalis is a long-time trusted partner to OPG, including on the on-time, on budget Darlington Refurbishment Project,” she says. “We will draw on our shared experience for similar success as we build the first small modular reactor in the G7 at the Darlington New Nuclear Project site.”
AtkinsRéalis has been the architect-engineer on the Darlington New Nuclear Project alliance team since 2023, working alongside GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Aecon Kiewit. “Ontario’s power demand is expected to surge by 75% by 2050 and we’ll need all sources of cleaner power to meet the need, including large and small nuclear reactor technology,” said Joe St. Julian, President, Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis. AtkinsRéalis also continues to support SMR projects outside Canada, including in the UK, USA, and Poland.
TVA project
Significantly, Tennessee Valley Authority has selected the BWRX-300 for an SMR project at its Clinch River site (which back in the 1970s was to have been the location of a 350 MWe liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor).
On 20 May, TVA announced that it had submitted a construction permit application to the NRC for the BWRX-300 project, making it the first utility in the USA to submit such an application for an SMR. TVA sees
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