Ontario looks to go ahead with three more small modular nuclear reactors

Open this photo in gallery:

Ontario is charging ahead with its bet on small modular nuclear reactors, announcing that its electricity utility will seek approvals for three more of the units on the grounds of its Darlington power plant, where it has already applied to build one of the new and largely untested systems.

Energy Minister Todd Smith unveiled the province’s plan for the SMRs on Friday at the site next to the existing Darlington nuclear facility in Clarington, about 80 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. Preparatory work is already under way, with newly paved roads leading to a large expanse of sun-baked dirt that has been cleared and flattened by a fleet of bulldozers.

While called small, each 300 megawatt reactor is still set to be about the size of a football field: Together the four proposed units would provide 1,200 megawatts, enough to power 1.2 million homes. Some estimates have pegged the cost at as much as $3-billion each, but Mr. Smith and Ontario Power Generation officials would not provide a firm price tag, saying one will follow the design and regulatory approval process still under way. The plan is to have the first reactor online by 2029.

Provincially-owned OPG had always contemplated building a total of four of the new units, which are expected to be among the first SMRs to go into service for a full-sized power grid in North America or Europe. On Friday, Mr. Smith said OPG would start planning and seeking approvals from Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the three added units, in addition to the one already in process.

The companies building the reactor include GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, SNC-Lavalin and Aecon – with OPG, GE Hitachi, the Tennessee Valley Authority power utility and Polish-based Synthos Green Energy partnering on the design. They hope to install more of the units – which proponents claim can be built more cheaply and quickly than conventional nuclear reactors – in the U.S., Poland and potentially elsewhere.

It’s the latest move in Ontario’s push to boost nuclear generation, which does not produce greenhouse-gas emissions, as electricity demand in the province is expected to skyrocket this decade. Earlier this week, Mr. Smith announced a proposal for the first new large-scale conventional nuclear plant in the province in 30 years, on the site of Bruce Power’s massive facility on the shores of Lake Huron. Last fall, the province announced plans to seek to extend the life of OPG’s Pickering nuclear plant.

Environmental critics, including Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, say nuclear power is too expensive and too risky, with a history of large cost overruns. And they accuse the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford of ignoring wind and solar, saying it paid $230-million to cancel hundreds of renewable energy contracts when it came into office in 2018. The government objected to the inflated prices for power embedded in the deals made by the previous Liberals.

Mr. Smith counters that nuclear power is needed to provide reliable “baseload” power, unlike the more intermittent energy that comes from wind and solar, even with the province’s plans for new large-scale renewable energy batteries.

Speaking to The Globe and Mail, the Energy Minister also said plans to increase power from other sources will be revealed next week, as the government responds to the recommendations of a recent report of its Independent Electricity System Operator. The IESO said $400-billion in investments was needed in order to decarbonize, and double the size of, Ontario’s power grid by 2050.

“We may down the road look at renewables again,” said Mr. Smith, who is scheduled to make another announcement on Monday in Windsor. “This is just one piece of our plan today.”

He also said he was confident in working estimates that the cost of the power from the new SMRs could be in the 11-to-14-cents-per-kilowatt-hour range. According to numbers from Lazard, an international financial advisory and asset management firm, that would be lower than the current range in the U.S. for nuclear power, and much cheaper than polluting natural gas – but pricier than the range for most wind and solar, even with the costs of battery storage included.

The province’s electricity system is already more than 90-per-cent reliant on greenhouse-gas-free nuclear and hydroelectric sources. But Ontario is set to expand its use of natural gas, and its carbon emissions, in the coming years as more of its aging nuclear plants go offline to be refurbished as part of a multiyear, $25-billion process already under way.

Alongside Mr. Smith at Friday’s announcement was Poland’s Ambassador to Canada, Witold Dzielski, who said his country plans to make use of the SMRs being pioneered in Ontario. He said energy independence had become more critical after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as many European countries rely on Russian natural gas.

“Canada, unlike Russia, does not weaponize energy,” Mr. Dzielski said. “The Ontario SMR program will provide green, affordable energy independent from Russian terror, Russian oppression and Russian atrocities.”