The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has issued a power reactor construction licence to Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to construct a General Electric Hitachi BWRX-300 reactor at its Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) site in Clarington, Ontario. The construction licence is valid until 31 March 2035. The licence includes four facility-specific licence conditions that, along with the standard licence conditions, will enable effective regulatory oversight of the licensed activities.
CNSC concluded that OPG is qualified to construct the reactor and will do so in a way that protects the health and safety of people and the environment. In making its decision, the Commission carefully considered all submissions and perspectives received during a two-part public hearing held virtually in October 2024, and in person in Ajax, Ontario in January 2025. The decision does not authorise the operation of the reactor, which would be subject to a future licensing hearing and decision, “should OPG come forward with a licence application to do so”.
OPG applied for a licence to prepare a site for the reactor in September 2006, and the CNSC undertook an environmental assessment process from 2007 to 2012 resulting in a determination from the Government of Canada that the DNNP was unlikely to cause significant adverse environmental effects. In December 2021, OPG selected the GE Hitachi (GEH) BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) for deployment at the site and applied for the construction licence in October 2022.
Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s Minister of Energy & Mines, said approval for a construction licence is a historic milestone for Ontario and Canada. “The Darlington New Nuclear Project could create up to 17,000 Canadian jobs during construction, contribute over CAD15bn ($10.5bn) to Canada’s GDP, and drive CAN500m annually into our supply chain because our government has insisted and successfully negotiated that local Ontario and Canadian businesses must be overwhelmingly used to build SMRs for the world. Ontario is realising its potential as a stable democratic energy superpower, and I look forward to sharing next steps for this exciting project in the coming weeks.”
In January, GEH awarded a contract to BWX Technologies to manufacture the reactor pressure vessel for the first Darlington SMR, and said early site preparation work at Darlington had been completed “with construction of the first unit expected to start later this year, pending regulatory approval, and commercial operations expected to commence by the end of 2029”.
The BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of Ge Hitachi’s (GEH’s) ESBWR, which has US Nuclear Regulatory Commission certification. As a result of design simplification, GEH claims the BWRX-300 will require significantly less capital cost per MW compared with other SMR designs. GEH says the BWRX-300 is being designed to reduce construction and operating costs below other nuclear power generation technologies. It will leverage a combination of existing fuel, plant simplifications, proven components as well as a design based on an already licensed reactor.
