“Pickering’s refurbishment is more than rebuilding reactors. It is Canada renewing its confidence in its own engineering, investing in generations of skilled workers, and proving that the power of tomorrow can be built upon the foundations we created yesterday.” – MJ Martin
A New Life for Pickering
Canada has entered another major chapter in nuclear power. On September 21, 2026, site construction formally began for the refurbishment of Ontario Power Generation’s Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The project will rebuild Units 5 through 8, four Canadian-designed CANDU reactors, extending their operating lives by as much as 38 years. Think of refurbishment less as repairing an old automobile and more as retaining its proven chassis while replacing its engine, drivetrain, electronics, and other critical systems.
The scope is enormous. OPG plans to replace 1,520 fuel channels, including pressure tubes, calandria tubes, feeders, and associated components. All 48 boilers, twelve per reactor, will be replaced. Turbine generators and controls will be renewed, most auxiliary systems will be upgraded, and a roughly 1.5-kilometre deep-water intake will be constructed. Generator improvements are expected to add about 30 MW to each unit.
Schedule and Regulatory Approval
The transition is happening now. Units 5 through 8 are scheduled to leave service by the end of September 2026, followed by defuelling and preparation. Although supporting site construction has begun, actual reactor refurbishment is scheduled to start in January 2027, subject to final Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission authorization. The CNSC held the first part of its licensing hearing in June, with Part 2 scheduled for October 6 to 9, 2026, in Ajax.
Unit 5 will lead the program and is expected to return to service in 2031. OPG currently expects all four refurbished reactors to be completed by 2034, effectively creating a staged return of generating capacity rather than waiting until the entire station is finished.
The $26.8 Billion Investment
The approved project budget is approximately $26.8 billion in 2024 Canadian dollars, including escalation, contingency, and financing costs. OPG’s regulatory filing places the release-quality estimate at about $26.84 billion, including approximately $4.05 billion of interest. This is considerably more than simply replacing reactor tubes because Pickering is being modernized as an integrated generating station.
An important Canadian dimension is procurement. More than 90 per cent of project spending is expected to remain in Ontario and Canada. Recent major awards include approximately $1.7 billion to the Aecon and AtkinsRéalis joint venture for Unit 5 retube, feeder, and boiler work, and $1.3 billion involving Aecon and Siemens Energy Canada for turbine-generator modernization.
Jobs and the Pickering Community
The employment impact will extend far beyond the plant gate. OPG currently describes approximately 28,000 direct and indirect jobs sustained annually during refurbishment, while Ontario’s latest announcement uses an estimate of about 30,500 jobs annually during construction. These estimates should not be added together because they use different economic scopes and definitions. Long-term operation will also preserve thousands of permanent nuclear, engineering, technical, and skilled-trades positions.
Pickering and Durham Region will experience both direct and indirect effects. Direct benefits include employment, contracting, infrastructure construction, and procurement. Indirect benefits flow through suppliers, restaurants, accommodation, transportation, retail, professional services, and household spending. The City of Pickering has also negotiated commitments including up to $10 million toward Fire Hall #5, up to $10 million connected with the acquisition of 591 Liverpool Road, and rehabilitation of Sandy Beach Road and Montgomery Park Road. Conversely, residents will experience heavier construction traffic, road works, and pressure on local infrastructure during the project.
More Power Than Before
Once complete, Ontario projects Pickering will provide up to 2,200 MW, enough electricity for the equivalent of approximately 2.2 million homes. OPG describes more than 2,100 MW of long-term capacity as being secured, with turbine-generator improvements contributing roughly 30 MW per unit. For Ontario, this is particularly important because nuclear generation supplies dependable output regardless of wind, sunlight, or temperature. A refurbished Pickering becomes something like a rebuilt foundation stone beneath an increasingly electrified provincial economy.
The economic significance extends further. The refurbishment and subsequent decades of operation are projected to contribute approximately $41.6 billion to Canadian GDP, while maintaining domestic CANDU expertise and supporting production of medical isotopes such as cobalt-60.
Questions Worth Asking
The deeper questions are strategic.
* Is spending $26.8 billion to obtain another three to four decades from existing CANDU assets preferable to constructing equivalent new generation?
* How should Ontario evaluate refurbishment cost against reliability, carbon emissions, grid stability, and energy sovereignty?
* And perhaps most importantly for Canada, can the expertise transferred from Darlington to Pickering, and eventually to new nuclear projects, transform refurbishment from a provincial electricity program into a durable Canadian nuclear industrial capability?
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.