Ontario Power awards contract for Darlington SMR

Ontario Power Generation has awarded an AtkinsRéalis subsidiary company a $450 million ($325 million USAD) execution contract for its first small modular reactor for the Darlington New Nuclear Project.

Candu Energy, an AtkinsRéalis subsidiary, is a Canadian nuclear technology company that specializes in reactor design and fuel cycle technology. AtkinsRéalis is providing OPG with expertise for the engineering of the SMR, according to the company’s Wednesday May 28 press release.

As part of the Darlington New Nuclear Project, OPG plans to build four SMRs at its Darlington site in Clarington, Ontario to supply 1,200 megawatts. In April, the company was issued a construction permit by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to use GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 SMRs for the project.

A BWRX-300 SMR is a boiling water reactor with an energy generation capacity of 300MW.

AtkinsRéalis has been involved with the Darlington New Nuclear Project since 2023 as the architect engineer. The company works alongside Aecon Kiewit Nuclear Partners and GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy.

Site preparation work at Darlington performed under an earlier validation phase contract has been completed, AtkinsRéalis said.

“Our involvement in the G7’s first grid-scale SMR and Canada’s first nuclear new build in roughly 30 years reaffirms our leading position in the global nuclear energy market, for both large and small reactor technologies,” AtkinsRéalis CEO Ian Edwards said in the press release. “Our trusted relationship with OPG supporting hydropower assets and refurbishing CANDU reactors at Darlington and Pickering will support this project’s successful completion by 2030.”

The execution contract comes after OPG awarded Aecon a construction contract for its first BWRX-300 SMR at the Darlington site earlier this month.