Ontario's First SMR Will Depend on Imported Enriched Uranium, Raising Sovereignty Concerns

Ontario Power Generation is constructing the Darlington New Nuclear Project, the province’s first small modular reactor built to the BWRX-300 design, with grid connection expected by the end of 2030. Unlike Canada’s historic CANDU reactors that used domestically produced natural uranium, the BWRX-300 requires low-enriched uranium, which will be sourced from the United States, France’s Orano and Britain’s Urenco, with final fuel assemblies fabricated in the U.S. Cameco will mine and convert uranium in Canada before it is sent abroad for enrichment.

Energy Minister Stephen Lecce explained that no Canadian vendor could supply a grid-scale SMR, so the province selected the American-Japanese design as the most mature option. Experts warn that outsourcing enrichment and fabrication reintroduces the geopolitical vulnerabilities the original CANDU program sought to avoid, though OPG argues a diversified supplier base offers resilience. The federal government has not yet committed to domestic enrichment, but is studying future needs through a proposed Nuclear Fuels Table. The move highlights a tension between Canada’s energy-sovereignty narrative and practical supply-chain realities.