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Canadian town declares willingness to host repository

11 July 2024

The Township of Ignace in north-western Ontario has become the first community to confirm its willingness to move forward to the next phase of the site selection process to host a deep geological repository for Canada's used nuclear fuel.

anada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) launched the process to select a suitable site for the deep geological repository (DGR) for Canada's used nuclear fuel in 2010. By 2012, 22 communities had expressed an interest in learning about the project and exploring their potential to host it. Eleven of those communities went forward to the second phase of NWMO's preliminary assessment process. By the end of 2019, the list of potential host communities had been narrowed down to two: the Revell Site, some 43 km northwest of the town of Ignace, and 21 km southeast of the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation; and the South Bruce Site, about 5 km northwest of Teeswater in the municipality of South Bruce.
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A concept for the Canadian used nuclear fuel repository (Image: NWMO)

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NWMO is expected to make a final decision on the siting of the DGR by the end of December 2024. Once the final site selection has been made, its safety will be confirmed through a rigorous regulatory review of the repository design and safety case. The regulatory and licensing process is expected to take about 10 years to complete.

Construction of the repository is expected to begin in 2033, with operations beginning in the early-2040s.

Ontario minister marks completion of first phase of SMR preparations

14 June 2024

Newly appointed Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce visited Ontario Power Generation's Darlington New Nuclear site to mark the completion of the first phase of site preparation for the province's first small modular reactor (SMR) and recent trade missions to Romania and France.


Lecce's first visit to the Darlington New Nuclear site since becoming Minister of Energy and Electrification (Image: OPG/X)

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) announced in March that early phase works for the Darlington New Nuclear Project to construct the first of up to four BWRX-300 SMRs had been completed on time and on budget, clearing the way for the main site preparation work to begin.

Yesterday, the government said that OPG "has now completed the early works for the first SMR in the G7 on time and on budget" and added that the site has now been transitioned into the care of the Darlington New Nuclear Project's construction partner, Aecon, to allow for main site preparation to begin. This work includes excavation, the construction of shoring walls, and land clearance for three additional units.

"We are today announcing the next phase of construction on the first small modular reactor of its kind in our country and across the G7 and part of the industrialised world," Lecce said during his visit to the site. "We're building four here. And we're expanding Bruce. We're extending the life of Pickering. These are massive investments to ensure we have the energy security to build our economy."

The new minister also marked the successful completion of trade missions to Romania and France, with "significant deals" worth over CAD360 million (USD261 million) including the signature of new agreements with Nuclearelectrica in Romania and Stellarex in France. Lecce and former Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith - now the province's Minister of Education - also met with European government representatives and energy companies and hosted a Nuclear Education Roundtable to discuss workforce and talent gaps in Romania's nuclear sector and opportunities for future collaboration.

"With increasing geopolitical volatility, it is clear that countries around the world are looking for stable democratic energy partners that offer clean, reliable and affordable energy - and Ontario is once again answering that call," said Lecce. "Thanks to Ontario's domestic nuclear programme, we are landing major agreements abroad that are creating value-added jobs back home in Ontario as we deliver a major nuclear refurbishment in Romania that is going to support energy security for Europe."

New Brunswick releases energy strategy with SMR focus

15 December 2023

The strategy outlining how the province aims to transition to clean energy calls for the addition of 600 MWe of capacity at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generation Station by 2035, doubling New Brunswick's current nuclear capacity.


A vision of an ARC-100 SMR plant (Image: ARC)

Powering our Economy and the World with Clean Energy – Our Path Forward to 2035 focuses on affordability, energy security and reliability, regulatory reform and economic growth. As well as SMRs, it calls for an almost five-fold increase in wind and solar capacity, with increased roles for hydrogen, renewable natural gas, and biofuels - traditional natural gas serving as a transition fuel both locally and globally. Transmission upgrades and enhanced connectivity within Atlantic Canada will play an increasingly important role in balancing the grid, while adding electric vehicle charging stations and increasing use of biofuels and hydrogen will transform the transport sector.

The roadmap included in the report sees the first 150 MWe of SMR capacity coming online in 2030-2031, with another 450 MWe starting up in 2035. As well as installing new SMR capacity, the strategy also outlines an initiative to increase the operating efficiency of the existing Point Lepreau nuclear generating satation, with the government saying it will work with utility NB Power "to enable the establishment of a partnership with another nuclear operator to improve performance, lower operational risk and lower cost".

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said the strategy balances addressing climate change with the province's growing energy needs and demands. "We have a generational opportunity in front of us, to change the way we use energy to live and work, that will lead to a cleaner environment, more economic growth and, most importantly, an affordable and secure energy supply for all New Brunswickers" he said.

"Climate change and the need to move away from greenhouse gas-emitting fuels are creating a global energy transition," the province's Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland said. "Our actions will collectively reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half by 2035, putting us well on our way to achieving a net-zero economy and creating new economic opportunities and prosperity for our province."

NB Power, operator of the existing 600 MWe Candu plant at Point Lepreau, earlier this year published its own strategic plan highlighting the need to phase out coal by 2030 and achieve net-zero electricity supply by 2035. The utility, a Crown Corporation owned by the province, currently generates electricity from nuclear, hydro, coal, oil and diesel powered stations.

In July, NB Power, in partnership with SMR developer ARC Clean Technology Canada Inc, submitted an environmental impact assessment registration document and an application for a site preparation licence for an SMR at Point Lepreau. The deployment of ARC Clean Technology Canada Inc's ARC-100 sodium-cooled fast reactor in New Brunswick and is part of a joint strategic plan on SMR development and deployment released by the governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta in 2022.

Bruce 6 back on the grid after refurbishment

08 September 2023

The unit has been reconnected to Ontario's grid following a successful Major Component Replacement (MCR) outage that was completed ahead of schedule and on budget.

Beginning its MCR outage in January 2020, Bruce 6 is the first of six units to undergo the refurbishment process under Bruce Power's Life Extension Program, extending their operation to 2064 and beyond. According to Bruce Power, the programme is Ontario's largest clean-energy initiative and one of Canada's largest private sector infrastructure projects, funded by private-sector investors.

Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck expressed the company's pride in the people and partners, including suppliers and trades unions, who have contributed to the project. "As one of the largest nuclear operators in the world, refurbishing our units is key to providing clean, reliable energy to the people of Ontario well into the future. We have shown strong performance and we’ve committed to providing the lowest-cost nuclear energy in Ontario and to bettering our performance in each successive MCR outage," he said.

The company also thanked Ontario Power Generation (OPG) for sharing lessons learned and operating experience. OPG has completed the refurbishment of the first two of four units at its Darlington site in a ten-year programme that will enable the plant to continue operations until 2055.

Bruce 3 - which began its MCR outage earlier this year - is reaping the benefits of lessons learned in Unit 6 to achieve time and cost savings, the company said. Innovations realised in Bruce 6's refurbishment will be carried forward to improve performance and quality in subsequent MCR outages, including tooling and inspection automation and robotics, and advanced modelling and training.

Hundreds of companies, and thousands of tradespeople, are involved in each MCR. The refurbishment includes replacing and upgrading key equipment - 480 fuel channels, 960 feeders and eight team generators - in addition to thousands of other modifications and tasks, before 5,760 new fuel bundles are loaded into the reactor core.

Ontario government announces support for nuclear expansion

06 July 2023

The province's government has announced it is starting pre-development work to build up to 4800 MWe of new nuclear capacity at Bruce Power's existing site, in what would be Canada's first large-scale nuclear build in more than 30 years.


Electricity demand in Ontario is rising for the first time since 2005, the government said. It has already implemented a plan to meet rising demand in the current decade, but Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) last year issued a report forecasting that the province could need to more than double its electricity generation capacity from today's 42,000 MWe to 88,000 MWe by 2050.

The IESO report recommended that Ontario begin planning, siting and environmental assessment work for long-lead assets, including nuclear power, as a "no regret" action towards meeting decarbonisation goals and increasing electricity demand driven by strong economic growth, electrification and population growth beyond 2030.

Bruce Power's eight existing Candu reactors already produce some 30% of Ontario's electricity, and the company said the site has space for "incremental infrastructure development". President and CEO Mike Rencheck said nuclear power had been the "stable backbone" of Ontario's electricity system for decades, and the long-term planning and consultation activities will determine how it can further contribute to Ontario's clean energy and economic development goals. The long-term planning and consultation activities will not impact the company's ongoing programme to secure the site's operation until 2064.

Minister of Energy Todd Smith said Ontario's "open for business approach" has led to "unprecedented" investments across the province. "With our plan already in place to meet demand this decade, we are starting the pre-development work to identify future generation options, including reliable, affordable and clean nuclear energy, that will power our province into the future," he said.

The process for approving and building new nuclear capacity could take a decade or longer, and federal approval is the first step in this process, the government said. The pre-development work will take several years to complete and will help evaluate the suitability of the site by examining the impacts of a new facility on the environment, the public and Indigenous communities, with significant public input and community consultations. It is also a prerequisite for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's licensing process for a new large-scale reactor.

The Ministry of Energy said it is working with the IESO and Bruce Power on a contractual approach to address the costs associated with the pre-development work to minimise the impact on ratepayers and will also look for ways to use funds collected from the sale of clean energy credits through the Future Clean Electricity Fund to help reduce the costs for ratepayers.

Eighteen of Canada's 19 operating Candu reactors are in Ontario, where they provide around half the province's electricity. Although nuclear capacity played a key role in enabling the province to entirely phase out coal-fired electricity generation in 2014, plans for new large-scale reactors had been shelved in favour of projects by Bruce and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to refurbish existing reactors to allow them to continue operating well beyond the middle of the century. The province is also - alongside Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan - pursuing a strategic plan to develop and deploy small modular reactors (SMRs), and OPG has begun site preparation for a grid-scale SMR at a site adjacent to its existing Darlington plant.

"Ontario's electricity system is already cleaner than California or Germany and the Bruce Power nuclear site was instrumental in helping to phase out coal and establishing Ontario's clean energy advantage," Dave Butters, president of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario, said. "Today's announcement to identify future generation options to meet rising electricity demand creates a tremendous option for the province both to meet our coming power needs, and support our transition to net-zero."

Bruce Power is located in the traditional and treaty territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation and the harvesting territories of the Métis Nation of Ontario and the Historic Saugeen Métis.

Additional SMRs in the pipeline for Darlington

07 July 2023

The Ontario government announced it is working with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to begin planning and licensing for three additional GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) BWRX-300 small modular reactors, for a total of four, at the Darlington plant site.


Plans being announced for the additional SMRs at Darlington (Image: OPG)

The announcement about three potential additional units builds on January's announcement about a contract to build a single BWRX-300 at OPG's Darlington site. Construction of that unit is scheduled to be completed by late 2028, with the supplying of power to the grid set to start in 2029.

Subject to Ontario Government and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulatory approvals on construction, the additional SMRs could come online between 2034 and 2036.

This timing would allow OPG to apply learnings from the construction of the first unit to deliver cost savings on subsequent units, the government noted. Building multiple units will also allow common infrastructure such as cooling water intake, transmission connection and control room to be utilised by all four units instead of just one, reducing costs even further.

"Once deployed, these four units would produce a total 1200 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to powering 1.2 million homes, helping to meet increasing demand from electrification and fuel the province's strong economic growth," the government said.

"A fleet of SMRs at the Darlington New Nuclear Site is key to meeting growing electricity demands and net-zero goals," said OPG President and CEO Ken Hartwick. "OPG has proven its large nuclear project expertise through the on-time, on budget Darlington Refurbishment project. By taking a similar approach to building a fleet of SMRs, we will deliver cost and schedule savings, and power 1.2 million homes from this site by the mid-2030s."

"OPG and the Province of Ontario have staked a leading position in the deployment of new nuclear with a project that will offer significant energy and economic benefits to Ontario and Canada," said GEH President & CEO Jay Wileman. "As a global clean energy leader, the Province of Ontario is an ideal home for this innovative project. We look forward to working closely with the SMR project partners as we build a fleet of new reactors together and demonstrate nuclear project excellence here in Canada."

On 31 October last year, OPG submitted an application to the CNSC for a licence to construct a BWRX-300 at the Darlington site. This licence is required before any nuclear construction work on the SMR can begin. However, site preparation work is already under way at the site. OPG expects to make a construction decision by the end of 2024.

The BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH's ESBWR boiling water reactor. The CNSC issued a positive decision in March, making the BWRX-300 the first SMR to complete such a pre-licensing Vendor Design Review in Canada.

The announcement of the additional SMRs comes days after the Ontario government announced it is starting pre-development work to build up to 4800 MWe of new nuclear capacity at Bruce Power's existing site, in what would be Canada's first large-scale nuclear build in more than 30 years.

Canadian government launches SMR support programme

24 February 2023

The Canadian government has launched a programme to support the commercial development of small modular reactors (SMRs), providing CAD29.6 million (USD21.8 million) of funding over four years to develop supply chains for SMR manufacturing and fuel supply and security, and to fund research on safe SMR waste management solutions.

OPG applies for construction licence for Darlington SMR

02 November 2022

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has submitted an application for a Licence to Construct a small modular reactor (SMR) at the Darlington site, where it plans to build Canada's first commercial, grid-scale SMR.



A rendering of a BWRX-300 plant (Image: GEH)
This licence is required before any nuclear construction work on the SMR at Darlington can begin. Site preparation work - which consists of non-nuclear infrastructure activities, such as clearing and grading parts of the site to build roads, utilities and support buildings, and for which the site is already licensed - began in October and is planned to continue into 2025.

The Licence to Construct application, lodged with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) on 31 October, was developed collaboratively between OPG and GE Hitachi, the designer of the BWRX-300. A number of information packages will be submitted to the CNSC in sequence, over the next six months.

According to the CNSC, a Licence to Construct requires an applicant to demonstrate that the design of the proposed facility "conforms to regulatory requirements and will provide for safe operation over the proposed plant life, and responsibility for all activities pertaining to design, procurement, manufacturing, construction and commissioning."

The regulatory review process includes opportunities for Indigenous Nations and Communities and the public to discuss the application, ask questions and raise areas of interest, OPG said, culminating in a public hearing, held by the CNSC. This is likely to take place in 2024.

The Darlington site is the only site in Canada currently licensed for a new nuclear build, with an accepted environmental assessment and site preparation licence. OPG expects to make a construction decision by the end of 2024 and has set a preliminary target date of 2028 for plant operations.

The BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH's ESBWR boiling water reactor. It is currently undergoing a CNSC pre-licensing Vendor Design Review.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank recently committed CAD970 million (USD713 million) towards the Darlington New Nuclear Project in the bank's largest investment in clean power to date, providing financial certainty and signalling federal support for the project.

Canada’s nuclear waste to be buried in deep underground repository

May 29 2019

Canada's nuclear industry is generating enormous amounts of waste that will remain radioactive for centuries to come. As Eric Sorensen reports, plans are underway to store that used fuel in a repository deep underground, but the plan is not without controversy.



Fred Kuntz of OPG said, “The rock at 680 metres deep is impermeable. It’s dry. It’s strong. The geology at that depth below the site has been isolated from any groundwater or the lake for hundreds of millions of years.”

The deep geological repository was approved by an environmental review panel in 2015, but both the Harper and Trudeau governments have put off giving the final go ahead. It now appears to hinge on the approval by indigenous people in the region.
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