{"id":2760,"date":"2025-10-24T04:47:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/24\/nova-scotia-to-learn-from-ontarios-nuclear-efforts-as-part-of-new-agreement\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T04:47:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:47:55","slug":"nova-scotia-to-learn-from-ontarios-nuclear-efforts-as-part-of-new-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/24\/nova-scotia-to-learn-from-ontarios-nuclear-efforts-as-part-of-new-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia to learn from Ontario\u2019s nuclear efforts as part of new agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Nova ScotiaOntario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, who appointed himself as the province\u2019s energy minister this week, held a press conference Thursday in downtown Halifax to sign a memorandum of understanding on the topic of small modular reactors.Provinces have signed a memorandum of understanding on topic of small modular reactorsLyndsay Armstrong  \u00b7 The Canadian Press  \u00b7 Posted: Oct 23, 2025 3:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesN.S., Ontario team up to explore small modular reactor techPremier Tim Houston signed a memorandum of understanding on small modular reactors. The document says the two provinces will work collaboratively on nuclear energy, although it doesn\u2019t include any concrete commitments. Taryn Grant has the story.Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says his government will learn from Ontario\u2019s nuclear efforts as part of a new agreement he signed with its energy minister Thursday, despite having no near-future plans for nuclear power in the Atlantic province.Ontario\u2019s Minister of Energy Stephen Lecce and Houston, who appointed himself Nova Scotia energy minister two days ago, held a press conference in downtown Halifax to sign the memorandum of understanding on the topic of small modular reactors.\u201dIt\u2019s not a near-term thing, for sure,\u201d Houston told reporters, noting that the province has no imminent plans to purchase a small modular reactor.\u201dBut we need to be part of the process so we understand what is possible, and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening,\u201d the premier said.Small modular reactors are smaller and produce less energy than traditional nuclear power reactors, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says.Thursday\u2019s agreement creates a framework for both provinces to share knowledge about nuclear technology, including how to manage nuclear waste, Houston said.Earlier this week, Houston booted Trevor Boudreau from the energy portfolio \u2014 and from cabinet \u2014 and named himself to the role.\u201dI just thought it was important that as premier I be directly tied to that file,\u201d the premier said Thursday. \u201cIt sends a message to Nova Scotians, but also to industry as well, of the importance that I hold it as the premier.\u201dLecce said this agreement with Nova Scotia shows how Canada is \u201cbuilding momentum\u201d on nuclear power. He noted that Saskatchewan, Alberta and New Brunswick have signed similar agreements with his province.Earlier on Thursday, the federal and Ontario governments announced they would be putting a total of $3 billion toward a project to build four small nuclear reactors in the Greater Toronto Area.Prime Minister Mark Carney has added the Darlington New Nuclear Project to his list of projects deemed to be in the national interest and therefore worthy of fast-tracking. He and Premier Doug Ford were at the site east of Toronto to announce that Ottawa will contribute $2 billion and Ontario $1 billion.\u201dWe\u2019re talking about 18,000 construction jobs, 3,700 permanent jobs so far, just with a fleet of four\u2026. But we can do more, we can scale. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re here, to further build that momentum,\u201d Lecce said.N.S. watching project closelyHouston said Nova Scotia will be watching this project closely, and the timeline of the construction will be of particular interest to him. Lecce told reporters that Ontario signed a memorandum of understanding to build reactors in 2019, and that construction began last year.The first of the small modular reactors at the Darlington site will be connected to the power grid by 2029, Lecce said, with the full fleet of four in operation by 2034 or 2035.Nova Scotia\u2019s official Opposition NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Thursday the agreement doesn\u2019t include any plans for nuclear development in the province, equating the news conference to a \u201cshiny announcement when what we\u2019re actually looking for is results.\u201d\u201dNova Scotia is going to watch a $3-billion investment in Ontario [that will] potentially produce a lot of economic development, and power and jobs. But beyond that, it\u2019s totally unclear what, if any, benefit accrues to Nova Scotians,\u201d Chender told reporters.She said the agreement will not help the province reach its clean energy targets, create new jobs or improve energy affordability.\u201dThis isn\u2019t about nuclear energy in Nova Scotia \u2026 they were clear in the press release and in the MOU [memorandum of understanding] that it\u2019s not even contemplated. So I\u2019m not sure why our premier is so interested in promoting Doug Ford across the province in Ontario and now right here at home,\u201d Chender said.MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nova ScotiaOntario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, who appointed himself as the province\u2019s energy minister this week, held a press conference Thursday in downtown Halifax to sign a memorandum of understanding on the topic of small modular reactors.Provinces have signed a memorandum of understanding on topic of small modular reactorsLyndsay [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,129,1],"tags":[116,128],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-nova-scotia","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-nova-scotia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}