Ontario Deploying Nuclear Energy Expertise to Advance Small Modular Reactor Development in Belgium

On Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at the World Nuclear Exhibition, Minister Lecce announced that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the Belgian Nuclear Forum have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to explore the deployment of new small modular reactors (SMRs) to Belgium.

“As countries around the world look for affordable, reliable and clean energy, Ontario is leading the way. We are proud to work with Belgium to explore opportunities to deploy Ontario-made nuclear technology and SMR expertise. This new partnership builds on Belgium’s decision to restart its nuclear generation program, which is critical to their energy independence from Russia and reflects Ontario’s global leadership as a respected and advanced nuclear operator.

The world is watching and turning to Ontario as we build the G7’s first SMR, backed by our reputation of delivering nuclear projects, on-time and on-budget, while exporting our clean energy advantage to fast-growing economies. Other agreements are already in place in Estonia and Poland to deploy 24 SMRs, as well as major refurbishment projects underway on the CANDU reactors at Romania’s Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. These projects are opening new markets for Ontario’s nuclear supply chain, creating good-paying jobs and positioning our province as a global energy superpower.

Here at home, Ontario is planning to refurbish our entire nuclear fleet and leading the largest nuclear expansion on the continent. This nuclear refurbishment and build-out plan is expected to contribute overall about $160 billion to Canada’s GDP during construction and $630 billion during operations, with close to 80,000 jobs created during construction and another 64,000 jobs during operations.

This includes the construction of the four SMRs at Ontario’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site which supports the government’s plan to protect Ontario’s workers and economy by creating up to 18,000 Canadian jobs, in addition to injecting $500 million annually to Ontario’s economy. This nation-building project will add a total of $38.5 billion to Canada’s GDP over the next 65 years and create 3,700 highly-skilled jobs.”