ONTARIO—On April 4, Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce responded to the news that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has issued a licence to Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to construct the first small modular reactor (SMR) at its Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP), saying that the project has potential to create up to 17,000 Canadian jobs during construction and contribute over $15 billion to Canada’s GDP marking a pivotal moment in Canada’s energy transition—and possibly its tech-fueled future.
The 10-year construction licence, granted on April 4, authorizes OPG to build a single General Electric Hitachi BWRX-300 reactor at the Darlington site, east of Toronto. The project is the first of its kind in North America to reach this stage, part of a broader government-backed push to expand nuclear capacity as the country pursues net-zero emissions by 2050.
But behind the headlines of clean energy and job creation lies a deeper power dynamic—one shaped as much by silicon as uranium.
While proponents frame SMRs as a flexible and low-carbon energy source, the timing of this expansion dovetails with the explosive energy appetite of generative artificial intelligence (AI). In October of last year, CBC’s The Current reported that tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Google are racing to secure nuclear power deals to run AI data centres—massive energy-hungry warehouses of servers and cooling systems.
Each ChatGPT query may light a bulb for 20 minutes, but the real drain comes from the constant, high-performance computing in the background. “There is going to be a couple of years when the demand is going to be outstripping any kind of renewable energy supply,” said Sasha Luccioni, AI researcher and climate lead at HuggingFace. Her call: regulate AI’s energy use and stop feeding an unchecked digital boom with public infrastructure.
Site preparation at Darlington is already well underway. The reactor shaft has been excavated 78 metres deep, steel frameworks are rising, and truckloads of clean soil move daily to grade the site for the remaining three SMRs planned.
Each BWRX-300 unit is expected to produce 300 megawatts—enough to power about 900,000 homes. The first is slated to go online in 2029. The federal government is supporting the Darlington build with $55 million from the Future Electricity Fund, touting the project as key to meeting growing clean electricity demands.
OPG, CNSC and federal officials say this build represents a new era in Canadian energy—modular, safer by design, and easier to deploy than legacy reactors. SMRs, according to CNSC officials, feature passive safety systems that shut down automatically without the need for human intervention.
Still, critics say the safety assurances, like the technology itself, are untested at scale.
In its decision, the CNSC declared it had “fulfilled its constitutional responsibility to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate Indigenous rights.” But that language—standard in federal regulatory approvals—offers little detail about the depth or outcomes of those consultations.
While the CNSC emphasizes its lifecycle approach to Indigenous engagement, many Nations and grassroots groups have raised longstanding concerns about transparency, radioactive waste storage, and a lack of consent, particularly in regions eyed for future SMR deployment, like Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario.
The Darlington build is only part of Canada’s nuclear resurgence. In March, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced a $304 million federal investment into a new CANDU reactor design, MONARK, in partnership with engineering giant AtkinsRéalis.
AtkinsRéalis—formerly SNC-Lavalin—also leads the modernization of Canada’s 17 existing CANDU reactors. These reactors run on natural uranium from Saskatchewan, supporting a Canadian-dominated supply chain that backers say generates 89,000 jobs and strengthens national energy security.
Canada’s nuclear push is now a two-pronged strategy: modernize proven technology like CANDU while experimenting with smaller, modular units that can be deployed faster and, potentially, in more remote areas.
Supporters say nuclear energy is vital to weaning Canada off fossil fuels. A four-reactor CANDU project, the Conference Board of Canada estimates, could inject $50 billion into the national GDP while cutting 17 million tonnes of CO₂ annually.
