TVA, Canada’s Ontario Power Generation Partner On Small Modular Reactors

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 2, 2022

Canada’s Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will jointly work to help develop small modular reactors (SMRs), TVA recently announced.

The agreement allows TVA and OPG to coordinate their explorations into the design, licensing, construction and operation of small modular reactors.

Both are also actively exploring SMR technologies. OPG is moving forward with plans to deploy an SMR at its Darlington nuclear facility in Clarington, Ontario. The Darlington site is the only location in Canada licensed for new nuclear with a completed and accepted Environmental Assessment.

TVA currently holds the only Nuclear Regulatory Commission Early Site Permit in the U.S. for small modular reactor deployment at its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tenn.

No exchange of funding is involved. However, the collaboration agreement will help OPG and TVA reduce the financial risk that comes from development of innovative technology, as well as future deployment costs.

Other Public Power Utilities Also Pursuing SMRs

Carbon Free Power Project, LLC (CFPP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, continues to advance the development and deployment of its first-of-a-kind SMR nuclear plant at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho. 

CFPP successfully and safely completed field investigation activities at the site in January 2022, a major milestone for the project.  

In May 2021, NuScale Power and Washington State’s Grant County Public Utility District on May 26 announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to evaluate the deployment of NuScale’s SMR technology in Central Washington State.