Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040

Canada released a new national nuclear strategy on Monday, with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson saying the country wants to build up to 10 new reactors over the next 15 years, sell Canadian-made reactors to more countries and double its uranium exports.

Hodgson called it a plan for a “new civilian nuclear renaissance,” as Ottawa aims to double the capacity of its electricity grid by 2050. “There is no credible plan to do that without nuclear energy and the clean, reliable baseload power it provides,” he told reporters in Newmarket, Ontario.

What the strategy commits to

Construction is to start on two new large-scale reactors by 2035, five more are to be planned or under development by 2040, and at least one reactor must be under construction outside Ontario by 2035. A Canadian-made microreactor is to be finalized by 2035 and deployed to a remote community by the late 2030s.

Canada operates four nuclear plants today — three in Ontario and one in New Brunswick — supplying about 15 per cent of its electricity. A proposed facility at the Darlington site in Ontario would host the first small modular reactor in the G7, with units of up to 300 megawatts.

Cost, funding and jobs

Officials from Natural Resources Canada said in a background briefing that building the reactors could cost more than $100 billion. The strategy does not say how Canada would pay for them; an official pointed to the Canadian Infrastructure Bank and the Canada Growth Fund as possible sources of financing.

Hodgson said the plan would double employment in the sector, from roughly 90,000 jobs today to more than 180,000 over the coming decades.

Reactor exports and enrichment

The strategy also aims to expand sales of Candu reactors, with the government seeking to enter at least four new international markets by 2040 and to “engage six to 10 new nuclear entrant markets over a 15-year horizon.” Thirty Candu reactors operate worldwide, including in South Korea, China, India and Romania, with two more planned.

Politics and oversight

The strategy says Prime Minister Mark Carney was not shown the document, and officials said he had no role in developing it because of the ethics screen he has in place. Carney's stock options and deferred shares in Brookfield Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management sit in a blind trust, and Candu competes with a reactor model co-owned by Brookfield.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed the plan: “An announcement will not build anything,” he said. The strategy also reaffirms a proposal to move impact assessments for nuclear projects to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada; the change is not in force while consultations continue.