Canada Building West’s First Grid-Scale SMR
Rosneft Proposes Oil Firms to Refine 30% of Crude in Russia to Ease Fuel Crunch With over two decades of journalistic experience working in newspapers, trade publications and as a mining reporter, Andrew Topf is a seasoned writer specializing in… Construction has begun on the Western world’s first grid-scale Small Modular Reactor (SMR), though small is not what comes to mind, considering that the machine will fit on two soccer fields.
According to AutoNotion, a 953-tonne slab of steel and concrete was lowered into a 35-meter shaft at Ontario’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site, “ending a decade of talk” about the new nuclear technology and ushering in a period of action.
The slab is the base mat of the first BWRX-300 modular plant designed by GE Vernova — formerly GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
Four units are planned for the site, each with a capacity of 300 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 300,000 homes.
By comparison, Darlington’s four conventional nuclear reactors each provide 935 MW.
Ontario government supportfor the CAD$20.9 billion project came after Ontario Power Generation received a Licence to Construct in April 2025 from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The first reactor is budgeted for CAD$7.7 billion, which includes $6.1B for the unit and another $1.6B for roads tunnels, cooling-water lines and other infrastructure shared across all four units.
When completed, it will be the first commercial grid-scale SMR in the West, with anin-service target date of 2030.
Russia and China already operate Small Modular Reactors, and Argentina has a pilot under construction.
According to AutoNotion, the Darlington New Nuclear Project is the first one a G7 country has built and wired to a major grid.
In Canada, SMRs are also considered ideal for deployment to off-grid, remote locations such as mine sites or the oil sands, as well as communities in northern Canada reliant on diesel-fueled generators for electricity.
In addition to OPG, Saskatchewan’s SaskPower has expressed interest in building BWRX-300s.
Some of the most advanced research on SMR technology is being conducted inNew Brunswick.
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