Canada - World Nuclear Performance Report

Nineteen reactors operate at four plants in Canada, 18 of which are in Ontario at Bruce, Darlington and Pickering, and one in New Brunswick. 

Refurbishment programmes are underway at Bruce and Darlington. Six of the eight units at Bruce are being refurbished, with the first, unit 6, returned to service in 2023. At Darlington units 2&3 have been returned to service, with units 1&4 due to restart in 2025 and 2026, respectively.

The Ontario government is supporting OPG’s plans to refurbish units 5-8 at the Pickering plant, with the schedule anticipating completing of the programme by the mid-2030s. 

In July 2023 the Ontario government announced it was working with OPG to begin planning and licensing three additional GE Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs) at Darlington, building on a contract signed earlier in the year for the first unit. Also in July, the province’s government announced it is starting pre-development work to build up to 4800 MWe of new nuclear capacity at Bruce.

In New Brunswick, NB Power, in partnership with ARC Clean Technology Canada, has submitted an application for a site preparation licence for an SMR. SaskPower in June 2024 said it has identified two potential sites for deployment of a BWRX-300 unit, both in the Estevan area of the uranium mining province of Saskatchewan. Separately SaskPower, Westinghouse and Cameco signed an agreement in June 2024 to evaluate deploying Westinghouse reactor technology.

Electricity generation by age of reactor