Canada will add four new nuclear reactors, three of them SMR

Canadian province Ontario It announced Friday that it will install four new nuclear reactors to meet its energy needs, the largest plans to expand Canada’s atomic energy in more than three decades.

Ontario wants to add three small modular reactors (SMRs) at the existing nuclear plant in the city of Ontario Darlingtonabout 70 kilometers east of Toronto, and building a new factory in Kincardine, about 220 kilometers northwest of that same Canadian city.

The three new small modular reactors announced Friday will be added to SMR, which also began construction at Darlington in December 2022.

The four SMRs in Darlington will produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity, enough power to power 1.2 million homes.

Small and medium-sized reactors are small, advanced next-generation nuclear reactors with the capacity to produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity per unit.

Currently, the Darlington Nuclear Power Plant has four reactors that generate 3,512 megawatts of electricity.

Kincardine Project

For its part, the new plant Kincardinewhich will be part of the Bruce Power nuclear power plant, will generate 4,800 megawatts.

Bruce Power currently consists of eight reactors with a maximum generating capacity of 6,550 megawatts of electricity.

Ontario has not indicated how much it will cost to build the four new reactors.

Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Todd Smith, announced Friday that the rapid growth of sectors such as electric vehicle production or the extraction of critical minerals to produce environmental steels makes it imperative to have “reliable, affordable and clean.”

For the first time since 2005, electricity demand is increasing in Ontario, where Canada’s industrial sector is concentrated.

The province estimates that it will need to double its electricity generation capacity from the current 42,000 megawatts to 88,000 by 2050. Nuclear power currently provides 50% of the province’s electricity needs.

In recent weeks, Canada has signed agreements with Volkswagen and Stellantis to build two battery plants in Ontario for electric vehicles that will require an increase in the country’s metal and electricity production.