Ontario Power Generation Subsidiary Joins UK SMR Project to Partner with SGE in Operating and Maintaining 14 BWRX-300 Reactors

SGE SMR UK, the UK project entity under SGE (formerly Synthos Green Energy), a European small modular reactor (SMR) development and investment organization, and Origin Nuclear, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada's Ontario Power Generation (OPG), formally signed a letter of intent on October 22 to establish a joint venture operating company that will be responsible for the operation and technical support of 14 planned BWRX-300 small modular reactor units in the UK.

According to the investment deployment blueprint published by SGE earlier in 2026, the company plans to finance entirely through private capital and build 14 BWRX-300 small modular reactors developed by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy in phases across three major nuclear sites in the UK, and has formally submitted a licensing application under the UK's "Advanced Nuclear Framework." The proposed joint venture will be based in the UK and, drawing on the direct technical experience accumulated by its parent company OPG in the construction of the first-of-a-kind project at Darlington in Ontario, Canada, will take the lead in all aspects of statutory licensing applications, system commissioning readiness, and full life-cycle operations and maintenance and centralized support for the UK SMR units after grid connection.

Rafał Kasprów, CEO of SGE, stated that selecting a nuclear operations partner with deep technical expertise is one of the most critical upfront decisions for advancing reactor deployment; OPG has over half a century of mature nuclear operations experience and personally oversees the construction of the world's first BWRX-300 demonstration unit. This cooperation will greatly strengthen engineering confidence in the successful delivery of 14 units across three UK sites and also lay the foundation for building a standardized long-term commercial operations and maintenance model for the BWRX-300 across the entire European market. Jos Diening, President and CEO of Origin Nuclear, noted that the Darlington new nuclear project provides Ontario with reliable clean baseload electricity, and Origin Nuclear is using this to bring Canada's high-standard nuclear supply chain and engineering expertise to the international stage and to participate deeply in the construction of the world's next-generation nuclear infrastructure.

The BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled natural circulation small modular reactor equipped with highly simplified passive safety systems. Its physical design and safety licensing basis are derived from the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), which has received design certification from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and it uses the mature GNF2 nuclear fuel assembly system. As a co-investor in the standardized design, SGE is working with GE Vernova Hitachi, Canada's OPG, and the U.S. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to advance the global engineering deployment of this reactor type; in addition to the 4 units planned at the Darlington site in Canada, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission formally issued TVA a construction permit in September for the BWRX-300 at the Clinch River site in Tennessee.

In terms of the specific UK project implementation path, the first selected site is planned for the intensive deployment of 6 BWRX-300 units, with the first unit targeted to enter commercial operation in 2034, after which construction at the other two multi-unit sites will be rolled out in sequence. SGE emphasizes that this "multi-unit cluster + standardized replication" delivery strategy is intended to maximize economies of scale, streamline centralized procurement, and accelerate the cross-project reuse of engineering experience. A strong multinational engineering consortium has been assembled for this construction program, with members including SGE, GE Vernova Hitachi, Samsung C&T, Laing O'Rourke, Aecon Group Inc, Fermi Development, and Etara.

Once all 14 planned SMRs are completed and connected to the grid, total installed capacity will reach 4.2 GW, capable of meeting approximately 11% of the UK's electricity consumption over an operating period of at least 60 years, equivalent to providing continuous, stable zero-carbon baseload electricity to nearly 8 million households, and will constitute major strategic support for the UK in achieving its grid decarbonization goals and safeguarding national energy sovereignty.