TORONTO – Players in the nuclear industry in Canada are ready to export their technologies as well as technical capabilities to the Philippines once the country decides firmly on the resurgence of its nuclear power ambitions.

Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith conveyed to a recent delegation from the Philippines that “we really look forward to exporting, not just the big nuclear which we have been doing for the last number of years, but now the small modular reactors.”

For large scale nuclear power projects, Canada has already established deep expertise on its pressurized heavy water CANDU reactor which is fueled with natural uranium, hence, the technology’s uniqueness lies in the fact that its uranium will no longer need to be enriched.

In particular, the enhanced CANDU 6 reactor of Canada had already been exported to key markets in various parts of the world -- including those in Romania, Argentina, South Korea and China; apart from key deployments at its domestic market in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

To date, there are already 17 operating CANDU reactors in Canada – and four of the Darlington nuclear reactors of Ontario Power Generation are already going through refurbishment phase after their initial 30-year cycle of operations.

“Nuclear has played a key role in our energy system here, providing about 60% of our electricity every day. We’re very fortunate in Ontario to have one of the cleanest electricity grids in the entire world,” Smith said.

The Ontario energy chief qualified that “because of nuclear, we were able to phase out coal a number of years back – back in 2014-2015, so there’s no coal as part of our system anymore in generating electricity.”

He vouched that “we have the most effective nuclear facilities in the world that have operated safely for 40 years …we have the CANDU reactors that can be refurbished at mid-life and ensuring that those multi-billion projects don’t just come in on time and on budget, they actually come in ahead of schedule by six (6) months.”

Bilateral meeting between the Philippine delegation and Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith

Leaning on its decades of success in operating nuclear facilities, Smith highlighted that it becomes easier for Canada now to move notches ahead in the deployment of next-generation nuclear technologies – primarily the small modular reactors (SMRs) and the micro-modular reactors (MMRs).

“Because of the success that we had at nuclear, this enabled us to move forward with the next generation of nuclear reactors,” he stressed; primarily citing the planned deployment of four SMRs with 300-megawatt configuration at the Darlington nuclear site.

There are at least three streams of SMR and MMR technology buildout being pursued in Canada – including the proposed installation of GEH BWRX-300 SMR reactor by Ontario Power at its Darlington nuclear energy complex.

In the case of New Brunswick Power, it is now advancing on its licensing process for the deployment of ARC-100 SMRs that are of Generation IV grid-scale reactor that also offers value-added feature for storage system; while its molten salt reactor (Moltex) SMR is already progressing on the research and development (R&D) as well as technology design phase.

It was specified that for the ARC-100 SMR technology, these are seen ideal for potential applications – primarily on the production of medical isotopes from fast reactors; then as efficient energy source for data centers.

On the MMR technology rollout space, the prospective offers from Canada will be the GFP (Global First Power) MMR for 5.0MW capacity and the Westinghouse evinci microreactor at 3.0MW-equivalent capacity.

Smith emphasized “in the Western world, we really are ahead of the game – we are in the driver’s seat. We are going to deploy the first one in the Western world at the Darlington site ready to go on-line by late 2028 to early 2029.”

He further noted that while the energy system of Ontario is of highly diversified array, nuclear has been the main pillar of their energy security as this accounts for 60% in their energy mix.

“We do have a very diverse system in Ontario where nuclear is the backbone of our energy supply – we’re very fortunate to have abundance of hydroelectric in places like Niagara Falls – not only it is beautiful in sight, but it is beautiful from electricity generation side as well,” Smith asserted.

He expounded “we have many run-of-river opportunities in the North and East as well, then we have a mix of intermittent sources like wind and solar, biomass and backed up by natural gas systems. So, we really do have it all in Ontario, we’re very fortunate, but it is nuclear that makes up the backbone of our system.”