this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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There's been a lot of talk about SMR's over the years, it's nice to see one finally being built.

Even if it comes in over budget, getting the first one done will be a great learning experience and could lead to figuring out how to do future ones cheaper.

Assuming it's on time, completion in 2029, connected to grid in 2030.

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 day ago (7 children)

The small modular reactor (SMR) would provide 300 megawatts of power, enough electricity to supply about 300,000 homes, according to briefing documents from Ontario's Ministry of Energy and Mines.

300MW isn't small at all. That's half a CANDU block! I thought they would be significantly smaller and therefore not too significant for the grid until we build more units. This is the equivalent of 20-30 of the largest wind turbines available. Not sure if we have that large units installed in Canada.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

It's small compared to typical nuclear reactors which are usually 1GW, and these new units use much less land space.

Edit: They're also designed to be manufactured offsite at a manufacturing facility instead of the very large ones that are built on site.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Our reactors have lower output than the typical 1-1.5GW of foreign designs though. CANDU are in the the 500-800MW range. It's why compared to CANDU, 300MW is significant.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Ah, I didn't realize the CANDU's were also manufactured at a factory unlike the bigger built in place ones.

I guess it's just about getting them even smaller at that point, and the SMRs take up less land space as well.

A SMR-300 (maybe not this one specifically) can be as small as 3 hectares.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

I don't know if CANDUs have pre-made components, I was just talking about their output power. I don't know exactly why it's lower than other designs but I know there are some fundamental differences like CANDU burning unenriched uranium as opposed to almost all other designs. It also uses heavy water to make that possible compared to the rest. I assume the lower power output is related to these differences. Or it could be arbitrary. We need someone working on nukes at OPG or SNC-Lavalin to chime in. 😂

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Oh sorry I googled CANDU to learn a bit more and saw that they were also made in a factory offsite.

I imagine that's at least one of the reasons why its lower capacity per reactor. It can only be so big if built offsite.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

So we had SMRs all along? I smell a grift. 😂

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

The CANDU still take a much larger space I guess due to the overall design. You can fit one of these SMRs in 10-15 acres.

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