GEH Signed Contract For The First SMR In North America

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH – ENS Corporate Member), Ontario Power Generation (OPG), SNC-Lavalin and Aecon have signed a contract for the deployment of a BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at OPG’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site.

This is the first commercial contract for a grid-scale SMR in North America.

This first commercial contract for a small modular reactor in North America marks a significant milestone in deploying SMRs in Canada and across the globe.

said Sean Sexstone, Executive Vice President, Advanced Nuclear, GEH.

The multi-party agreement, through which GEH is to provide the reactor design, covers a range of project activities including design, engineering licensing support, construction, testing, training and commissioning.

The BWRX-300 is a 300 MW water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems. It produces no carbon during operation and has been designed to achieve construction and operating costs that are substantially lower than traditional nuclear power generation technologies.

Read the full GEH Press Release.

The global interest in the BWRX-300 is significantly growing.

In addition to Canada, also the UK and Poland have already submitted applications to the related State nuclear regulatory bodies.

At the same time, GEH has memoranda of understanding or other agreements in place with companies in the USA, Sweden, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, among others, to explore the deployment of the technology.