Federal, Ontario governments contributing $3B to small nuclear reactor project

The federal and Ontario governments are putting a total of $3 billion toward a project to build four small nuclear reactors in the Greater Toronto Area.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has added the Darlington New Nuclear Project to his list of projects deemed to be in the national interest and therefore worthy of fast tracking.

He and Premier Doug Ford are at the site east of Toronto today to announce that their governments are contributing $2 billion and $1 billion, respectively.

Ontario Power Generation has said the entire project should cost about $21 billion.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission granted OPG a licence to construct the first of the four SMRs earlier this year and construction began in the spring.

The province says that once all four SMRs are up and running, they will produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1.2 million homes.