‘World is at our doorstep’: Clarington, Durham poised to benefit from Darlington SMR Project
CBC
For as long as he can remember, Carter Albis has been fascinated by nuclear energy.
"I grew up right next to Pickering Nuclear. I used to play on the beach, like right next to the plant a lot,” he said. “When you're that age, it's this cool, mysterious building. That's where it started for me.”
That fascination led him to apply to Ontario Tech University’s nuclear engineering program, not far from which sits the Darlington Nuclear Station in Bowmanville.
Now it’s there, where the first-year student sees a radiant future for his career.
“Nuclear energy is actually the backbone of Ontario's energy generation sector,” said Albis. “There's no shortage of opportunity."
On Thursday, Ontario and the federal governments announced a combined spending commitment of $3 billion to build Canada’s first small modular reactors (SMRs), a new nuclear energy technology to be built next door to the Darlington power plant.
The project is projected to bring 18,000 construction jobs to the region and sustain 3,700 energy jobs annually over 65 years.
“It shows just how multigenerational nuclear power plants are,” he said. “Many of the nuclear plants that are in projects that are being built right now, they'll continue to produce energy past 2100. That's a long time.”
The SMRs will inject $500 million annually into the Canadian supply chain, according to the prime minister, while construction, operation and maintenance of the four units will add more than $38 billion to Canada’s GDP over the next 65 years.
Earlier this year, the Ford government greenlit Ontario Power Generation to start construction on the first SMR. The total project cost was announced at the time as costing $20.9 billion, with the estimated construction cost of the initial reactor being $7.7 billion.
While construction is still in its infancy, local businesses are already reaping the rewards, according to Bonnie Wrightman, Clarington's board of trade executive director.
“We have connected quite a few businesses to vendors who are serving the project and working with our local businesses already,” Wrightman said. “The economic impact is actually being felt right now.”
Wrightman described the scale of the project as one of the largest Clarington has ever seen. She said the trickle-down effect will boost numerous sectors throughout the region.
In a briefing earlier this year, officials with Ontario's Ministry of Energy and Mines told reporters roughly 80 per cent of the SMR project spending will go to Ontario companies.
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