Canadian regulator issues SMR construction licence

Friday, 4 April 2025

In making its decision, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) said it had concluded that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is qualified to carry out the activities authorised under the licence; that the company has adequate programmes in place to ensure that the health and safety of workers, the public and the environment will be protected; and that it will make adequate provision for the maintenance of national security and to implement Canada's international obligations.

The licence is valid until 31 March 2035, and includes site-specific licence conditions as well as regulatory hold-points during the construction process where OPG is required to provide additional information to the CNSC before it may continue.

The decision by the Commission does not authorise the operation of the reactor: this would be subject to a future licensing hearing and decision, "should OPG come forward with a licence application to do so", the regulator said.

Ontario Power Generation applied for a licence to prepare a site for the reactor in September 2006, and the CNSC began the environmental assessment process in May 2007. This was completed in 2012, with a determination from the Government of Canada that the Darlington New Nuclear Project was not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

In December 2021, OPG announced that it had selected the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 reactor for deployment at the site. It applied for the construction licence in October 2022.

Ontario Power Generation, in a post on the social media platform X, said: "The decision to grant OPG a license to construct the first of 4 SMRs is a significant milestone. We now await the go-ahead from the Ontario government to proceed."

Responding to the CNSC's decision, Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s Minister of Energy and Mines, said: "This approval is a historic milestone for Ontario and Canada. The Darlington small modular reactor will be the first of its kind in the G7, helping to power our growing province with reliable, affordable, and emissions-free energy.

"The Darlington New Nuclear Project could create up to 17,000 Canadian jobs during construction, contribute over CAD15 billion (USD10.5 billion) to Canada’s GDP, and drive CAN500 million 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, when announcing that it had awarded a contract to BWX Technologies to manufacture the reactor pressure vessel for the first Darlington SMR, GE Hitachi said that 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".