路透报道安大略核电与SMR建设进展，但未披露新增订单或审批节点

Ontario Power Generation (OPG), which is majority owned by the province of Ontario, started building the first of four GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 reactors in May 2025 at Darlington, an existing 3.5 GW nuclear site.

Supplier BWXT is building the reactor’s pressure vessel at ​its manufacturing facility in Ontario, and workers lifted the 2.1-million-pound reactor basemat into place in April 2026.

If everything goes according to plan, Unit 1 will come on stream in ‌2029, which would make it one of the first SMR units to produce power in the Western world.

The deployment will benefit from the 10-year, C$12.8 billion ($9.13 billion) refurbishment of Darlington’s four CANDU reactors, which feature Canadian-designed pressurized heavy-water nuclear technology. This project to extend the facility’s operating life by another 30 years—which finished in March this year, ahead of schedule and under budget—has revitalized the local nuclear supply chain.

Many of the skilled workers from the Darlington refurbishment have been retained for the BWRX-300 project ​and more than 100 Ontario companies will supply components and services, according to information supplied to Reuters Events by an OPG spokesperson.

“Ontario’s nuclear workforce is exceptionally mature due to ongoing refurbishment programs,” said ​Sean Sexstone, Executive Vice President for Advanced Nuclear at GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy. The site also has existing cooling water infrastructure and established security protocols, noted ⁠Sexstone.

MAP: Electricity generation mix in Canada's provinces

There are many advantages to building SMRs on active nuclear sites, including existing road, port, power and water infrastructure. These sites also have grid ​connections, high concentrations of skilled labour, supportive local communities, and nuclear generation licences.

All these factors can “reduce overall project duration by multiple years,” Daniela Pizzuto Director of Global External Communications, Nuclear, at Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRéalis, which is ​providing engineering, design and project support to OPG on the project, told Reuters Events.

GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy will apply lessons learned on Unit 1 to the construction of the three additional units, Sexstone told Reuters Events.

“An efficient rollout of SMRs relies on the repeat build of identical units based on a standard reference design, which is key to cost optimization,” he said.

OPG applied for an operating license for Unit 1 in March 2026, which is currently under public consultation. It plans to ​apply for construction licenses for the three other units later this year.

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Unit 1 carries a C$7.7 billion price tag, ​with C$20.9 billion estimated for all four units based on the assumption that costs will decrease as efficiencies accrue.

“That loads the first-of-a-kind risk onto Unit 1, and the economics of the whole program rest on a cost decline that ‌no SMR has ⁠yet demonstrated,” noted Zoé Sumont, Research Analyst, Energy Transition, at Wood Mackenzie.

The main project risks are cost overruns typical on first-of-a-kind designs stemming from “expensive mid-construction design change orders” and schedule slippage, Sumont told Reuters Events.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is building a service centre near the Darlington site to support wider deployment of the BWRX-300 boiling water reactor across Canada.

“We can really see the momentum building in Ontario, based upon the success of large-scale nuclear projects, and in several other provinces that are expressing interest in nuclear power,” John MacQuarrie, President, Commercial Operations at BWXT, told Reuters Events.

Wider deployment

The Canadian government in June announced a National Electricity Strategy to double power generation ​capacity by 2050, overwhelmingly through new clean energy projects, ​which already account for 80% of power production.

The ⁠target is for 10 new large-scale reactors to be planned, under construction, or completed by 2040, including at least one construction outside Ontario by 2035.

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OPG could build many of these new reactors under its plan to develop a 10 GW nuclear facility at Wesleyville, near Darlington, at the site of an oil-fired plant partly ​built in the 1970s.

OPG has begun the federal impact assessment process and hopes to apply for a construction licence in the early 2030s, with the first ​reactors expected to come online ⁠by the mid-2040s.

CHART: Canada power generation by source, 2024

Canada began deployment of CANDU reactors in the 1960s, with rapid rollout in the 1970s and 1980s. There are now 19 commercial reactors, 18 in Ontario and one in New Brunswick, giving a total of 13.6 GW installed capacity.

With 5.4 GW of nuclear energy, OPG is the largest nuclear generating company in Canada. Its Darlington and Pickering plants each have four nuclear ⁠reactors, and it ​also owns the eight-unit, 6.4 GW Bruce site, which is leased and operated by Bruce Power, Canada’s only private-sector nuclear operator.

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“Ontario is building a global reputation for delivering major nuclear projects on time and on budget,” and the planned projects will collectively add C$800 billion to Canada’s economy over their lifespans, Ontario Minister of Energy ​and Mines Stephen Lecce told Reuters Events.

While Canadian nuclear development remains heavily concentrated in Ontario, new projects are under discussion in Saskatchewan and Alberta, with microreactors mooted for remote communities in Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories.