CANDU’s nuclear reactor business is unsupportable without overseas sales.

Magnificent projections of nuclear expansion within Canada have vanished in a puff of smoke. The industry tantalizes politicians with great expectations of fabulous success just around the corner. Without any public debate, the politicians are quite easily suckered in – only to find that the promises were based on engineering euphoria and little else.

Gordon Edwards, 29 October 26

There have been no domestic sales of CANDU reactors since 1979. And the overseas sales have been minimal – 6 reactor sales in 48 years (since 1979), on average one sale every eight years. That’s not enough business to keep the industry alive.

Overseas customers have been India (2), Pakistan (1), South Korea (1), Argentina (1) and Romania (1) – all before 1979 – and South Korea (3), China (2), and Romania (1) after 1979. The Türkiye sale, if it proceeds, would be new territory for CANDU sales.

Here’s what the World Nuclear organization has to say about the Monark reactor, which is essentially a reactor of the Darlington CANDU design – with modifications – but encased in a single reactor building (without a vacuum building) similar to the Point Lepreau CANDU-6 design.

From https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/canada-nuclear-power

“In late 2023, AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin) announced its new Candu Monark design, with several passive safety features. The 1000 MWe design is a heavy water cooled and moderated Candu reactor core of 480 channels, with a two-loop ‘figure of eight’ heat transport system, similar to the design used for the Darlington plant. The fuel is natural uranium in 37-element bundles (37M). The conceptual design was completed in September 2024, and in October 2024 AtkinsRéalis signed a service agreement with the CNSC for familiarization and planning of a future pre-licensing design review. A CNSC preliminary regulatory design assessment of the Candu Monark-D, the variant referenced to the refurbished Darlington plant, began in March 2026. In the same month Candu Energy signed a memorandum of understanding with Türkiye Nuclear Energy Company (TÜNAŞ) to assess Candu deployment there.”

Back in 1982, I wrote two articles in business magazines based on a study by the federal government about the sad state of affairs for the CANDU industry. One was printed in the

Canadian Business Review (Cost Disadvantages of Expanding the Nuclear Industry 1982), the other was for the Canadian

Journal of Business Administration.(Canada’s Nuclear Dilemma 1983). Magnificent projections of nuclear expansion within Canada have vanished in a puff of smoke. The industry tantalizes politicians with great expectations of fabulous success just around the corner. Without any public debate, the politicians are quite easily suckered in – only to find that the promises were based on engineering euphoria and little else.

There were other articles about CANDU export sales from the same period of time. They are illuminating in terms of past examples of overblown hype from the nuclear industry, promises of expansion and foreign sales that did not turn out well. It is useful to know something about the past history….

Feeding the Nuclear Dragon: CANDU exports to China

By Dave Martin, 1995

Exporting Disaster: The Cost of Selling CANDU ReactorsBy Dave Martin, 1996

Nuclear Sunset: The Economic Cost of the Canadian Nuclear IndustryBy Dave Martin and David Argue, 1996

The CANDU Syndrome: Canada’s Bid to Export Nuclear Reactors to Turkey

By Dave Martin, 1997

Appeal regarding the Akkuyu Nuclear Plant in Turkey

By Dave Martin and the Nuclear Awareness Project