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Carney Wants Ten New Nuclear Reactors. Who Will Build Them?

The sales pitch will take skills, money, and time we may not have

Last fall, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario premier Doug Ford gathered in a cavernous space in Bowmanville, Ontario, a line of hard-hatted workers assembled behind them. Though the scene had many of the familiar set pieces of political theatre, the announcement concerned something novel: a new nuclear project, in a country that hadn’t seen one in over thirty years.

The federal government has released an unfunded strategy to construct ten large-scale nuclear reactors

Four small modular reactors are being constructed in Ontario, with experts unsure if this type can meet Canada’s energy needs

Other critics are concerned about costs, building timelines, material acquisition, and the failure to consider renewable energy sources

Standing at the dais, Carney pitched the project—a four-reactor nuclear plant in Darlington, Ontario, funded by a $3 billion federal and provincial investment—as part of Canada becoming master of its own destiny in a dangerous and unpredictable world. A month earlier, the Darlington New Nuclear project had been among the first added to the federal government’s list of major projects. At the announcement, it seemed a new chapter in Canada’s nuclear history was being written. “We are an energy superpower, and we are only getting stronger,” Carney proclaimed. “Clean technology is the future.”

The vision extends well beyond Darlington; across the country, nuclear power is having a moment. In Port Hope, Ontario, the provincial utility has proposed a new 10,000-megawatt nuclear station, while on the shores of Lake Huron, one of the world’s largest nuclear plants—the Bruce Power nuclear power plant—is advancing a plan to double the plant’s output to 4,800 megawatts. In Alberta, a proposal to generate a similar amount of power via four large-scale reactors near the town of Peace River has begun the impact assessment process. Saskatchewan is advancing plans for small and large nuclear reactors, while, in New Brunswick—home to the only operating nuclear plant outside of Ontario—the province is investigating ways to expand nuclear as it phases out coal.

Federally, that’s echoed by a rhetorical embrace of nuclear. In June, the federal government released a (unfunded) strategy for Canada to capitalize on the “global nuclear renaissance,” including ten large-scale reactors, with construction starting by 2035.

Worldwide, governments are looking to nuclear to support increased electrification and decarbonization, as part of a wider move away from fossil fuels. Increasingly, nuclear is also being pitched as a solution to the voracious energy appetite of artificial intelligence, an application that has helped unleash billions in private investment. But in Canada, the appeal of nuclear has an especially outward-facing tone; proponents suggest Canada, as a one-time leader in nuclear energy, can use the industry as a low-carbon path to not just energy sovereignty but global energy dominance.

Still, this vision for the future faces challenges, not least of which is the history of the industry itself, replete with bloated budgets and unfulfilled promises. On top of that, Canada hasn’t had experience with building a new reactor in decades. “There are a lot of opportunities to learn from the failures of the past, but ultimately it will come down to execution,” says Brendan Frank, vice president, policy at the think tank Clean Prosperity. “We need the workforce, the skilled trades, the project management expertise, the public financial support. A lot of things have to come together for this to go as intended.”

Canada’s role in developing nuclear energy dates to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when physicists at McGill University made pioneering discoveries about the nature of radioactivity. Then, in 1942, a nuclear laboratory was moved from the United Kingdom, where war was encroaching, to Montreal, where a team of scientists worked on a reactor that could produce material used in atomic bombs.

That reactor—the first operational reactor outside the United States—wasn’t up and running until after the war ended, when focus shifted to electricity production. Two decades later, Canada became one of a handful of countries to develop its own commercial reactor. The CANDU reactor was designed to make use of the country’s abundant reserves of........

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