Government of Canada Announces Over $300 Million to Support Domestic Nuclear Energy

The Government of Canada on March 5 announced the signing of a preliminary contract with AtkinsRéalis to lend $304 million for four years for the development of a novel, large-scale, natural uranium–fuelled Canadian deuterium uranium, or CANDU, nuclear reactor. The objective is to innovate the nascent nuclear reactor technology further and deploy the design for large-scale domestic power generation. The project also includes the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited which possesses the intellectual property for CANDU reactor design.

The reactors will utilize uranium from Saskatchewan that does not require enrichment, helping to ensure the reactor supply chain is entirely domestic with Canadian-made products and labor. As Canada’s electricity demand grows, investing in domestic nuclear power will provide cost-effective, reliable and clean electricity supply for the future.

Additionally, the government also announced investments and partnerships to work on other emerging nuclear technologies, including Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs. The Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Future Electricity Fund, or FEF, will increase funding from $24 million to $80 million to support SaskPower’s SMR pre-development activities such as technical studies, community engagement, environmental assessments and pre-engineering tasks.

The Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington New Nuclear Project will also receive $55 million in funding from the FEF to proceed with the next stage to advance three new GE Hitachi BWRX-300 SMRs. Each SMR reactor can generate 300 megawatts of electricity and the three reactors combined could power around 900,000 households.

With the proliferation of energy-intensive data centers in North America, countries are looking to nuclear power to provide clean and reliable power. Similar to Canada, the U.S. has also taken major steps to bolster the nation’s domestic nuclear industry, including restarting decommissioned nuclear plants and investing in emerging nuclear technologies such as SMR and high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.