Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission removes first hold point on first SMR construction at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.
This allows construction of the unit building foundation. Each Stage of Construction is held until previous stage compliance is confirmed. Darlington already has 4 full sized CANDU reactor units producing 3.5GW.
I believe this will be the first commercial SMR to be built in North America, if not the world. FYI
Approval Letter.
>March 30, 2026
>Mr. Mark Knutsen
Senior Vice President, Enterprise Engineering and Chief Nuclear Engineer
Ontario Power Generation Inc.
1908 Colonel Sam Drive
Oshawa, Ontario L1H 8W8
>Subject: DNNP LTC – Request for CNSC consent to remove the regulatory hold point prior to installation of reactor building foundation
>Dear Mr. Knutsen,
>The purpose of this letter is to respond to the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) submission [1], which requests removal of the first regulatory hold point (RHP-1) to allow construction associated with the installation of the Reactor Building (RB) foundation, and provides the associated completion assurance document as per the Ontario Power Generation – Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) Staff Protocol for the Management of Regulatory Hold Points (RHP) [2].
>The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) staff assessment [3] of OPG’s submission, as well as all supporting documentation, concludes that OPG has met all the pre-requisites established by the Commission to remove RHP-1. Therefore, as the person authorized by the Commission and pursuant to Licence Condition 15.3 of the Darlington New Nuclear Power Reactor Construction Licence 32.01/2035, I consent to remove RHP-1. OPG may now allow construction associated with the installation of the RB foundation.