Overview
- Canada formally pitched CANDU heavy-water reactors to Turkey and handed a letter from Energy Minister Tim Hodgson offering expanded nuclear co-operation.
- Turkish officials, who visited Ontario’s Darlington site with Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan, said they are interested in CANDU’s ability to run on natural (non‑enriched) uranium and in Canada’s small modular reactor work.
- Both governments described the exchanges as early-stage and exploratory, with no contract signed and substantive decisions still to come ahead of high-level meetings between the two countries.
- Ottawa’s offer fits inside a newly released federal nuclear strategy that aims to enter at least four new international markets by 2040 and engage multiple new nuclear-entrant countries over 15 years.
- If talks progress, Canada could supply both reactors and fuel from domestic uranium mines, a move that would boost Canadian industry, affect Turkey’s long-term energy mix, and strengthen bilateral economic and strategic ties; Ottawa already has CANDU cooperation experience such as a 2023 Romanian refurbishment.