The Province of Ontario announced on 7 July that it is working with Ontario Power Generation to begin planning and licensing for the deployment of three additional GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs) at the Darlington New Nuclear Project site. A total of four of these SMRs are now planned for deployment at the site, located east of Toronto.
The announcement covering three potential additional units builds on January’s announcement concerning the contract to build a single BWRX-300 at OPG’s Darlington site, the first commercial contract for a grid-scale SMR in North America.
Advanced nuclear technologies such as the BWRX-300 are a key pillar of GEH’s energy transition offering. In addition to helping customers achieve decarbonisation goals, the BWRX-300 is designed to reduce construction and operating costs below other nuclear power generation technologies. Specifically, the BWRX-300, says its maker, exploits a ‘unique combination of existing fuel, plant simplifications, proven components and a design based on an already licensed reactor.’
GE’s involvement in the Canadian nuclear industry dates from the early 1950s. The company helped build the first Canadian nuclear power plant, the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor that became the basis for the entire CANDU fleet.
Picture credit: GE Hitachi Nuclear energy
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