Welcome to the Atomic Rodeo: Canada Greenlights a Reactor That Doesn’t Exist Yet

Welcome to the Atomic Rodeo: Canada Greenlights a Reactor That Doesn’t Exist Yet

The men in ties and polished shoes have done it. Canadian nuclear regulators handed Ontario Power Generation (OPG) a hall pass to build a fantasy: the country’s first licensed small modular reactor (SMR) — a GE Hitachi BWRX-300 — at Darlington. A tiny nuke machine that’s never been built anywhere, let alone turned on. What could possibly go wrong?

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), bless their optimistic souls, said OPG was “qualified” to slap this reactor together without poisoning the environment or setting the neighbors’ hair on fire. Construction is go. Operation? That’s another mountain of red tape they’ll have to climb later — assuming the thing doesn’t self-immolate first.

Welcome to Darlington: Nuclear Vegas

Darlington is already a playground for atomic chaos. The site hums with heavy-water fission reactors being duct-taped back to life. Now it’s getting a new toy: a shiny, untested 300-megawatt SMR that dreams of powering 1.2 million homes — if OPG can conjure four of them into existence by sometime deep into the 2030s.

For now, the CNSC gave OPG permission to build just one SMR. Not to run it, not to flip the switch and light up Toronto like a Christmas tree. Just to dig the holes, pour the concrete, and pray.

Oh, and there are “regulatory hold points” sprinkled along the way — bureaucratic tripwires where the fun can stop at any moment if things get weird.

The BWRX-300: A Reactor Built on Vibes

This machine isn’t your grandfather’s Chernobyl special. It’s a boiling-water reactor that uses “natural circulation” to cool itself, without the messy business of pumps and frantic engineers mashing big red buttons.

On paper, it’s all passive safety and clean living. In reality, it’s an unproven prototype still wandering through regulatory hell. It’s passed Canada’s Phase 1 and 2 Vendor Design Review — meaning nobody saw a giant red “NO” yet. But it’s not design-certified anywhere, including the United States, where GE Hitachi is still hustling regulators.

So OPG is basically building a $5-billion science experiment, and hoping they don’t invent the world’s most expensive paperweight.

Nuclear Fantasies vs Brutal Realities

The road from “license to construct” to “reliably producing electricity” is paved with shattered dreams. Even in the US, NuScale’s pint-sized reactors cleared regulatory hurdles years ago but haven’t powered up a single lightbulb yet.

Meanwhile, Michigan’s Palisades project might leapfrog Canada altogether — they’re trying to resurrect an old plant faster than OPG can slap together their science fair project. And Holtec wants to plant two SMRs there by 2030, but good luck with that — their designs are still vaporware too.

Add a pinch of global chaos: US tariffs under President Trump are already rattling nuclear supply chains, with China choking off exports of critical minerals like neutron-absorbing rare earths. The reactor tech and enriched fuel? Yup, American-made. Which makes Canada’s energy sovereignty about as sturdy as a sandcastle at high tide.

The Final Countdown: Will It Melt Down or Shine?

If this atomic daydream somehow survives the coming years of bureaucratic hurdles, engineering snafus, economic tantrums, and international trade wars, it could be the first SMR to fire up outside China or Russia.

If not? Well, add it to the growing nuclear graveyard where good intentions go to die.

Get ready, Ontario. One way or another, the atomic rodeo has begun.