Aecon-Led Joint Venture Wins C$3 Billion in Contracts to Refurbish Ontario's Pickering Nuclear Plant

Ontario Power Generation has handed out C$3 billion ($2.13 billion) in contracts to refurbish the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, one of Canada's largest nuclear plants. The deal, announced Monday, September 21, 2026, splits the work between two teams: a joint venture of Aecon Group and AtkinsRéalis, and a consortium of Aecon and Siemens Energy.

Aecon's share alone, C$1.75 billion, gets added to its construction backlog in the third quarter of 2026, according to a company news release. Preliminary site work has already started this month. Full-scale construction is set to begin in January 2027, pending regulatory approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Two Contracts, One Goal: Keep the Reactors Running

The first piece is a C$1.7 billion contract awarded to a 50/50 joint venture between Aecon and AtkinsRéalis, operating under the name Candu Energy. That team will handle the Retube, Feeder and Boiler Replacement (RFBR) work on Pickering's Unit 5, according to Aecon and IndexBox. The scope includes swapping out steam generators, fuel channels and feeders, work expected to keep Unit 5 running into the 2060s, according to Ground News and the Daily Commercial News.

Similar retube-and-boiler work is expected on Units 6, 7 and 8 in later phases, but that's contingent on additional regulatory sign-off, sources including Yahoo Finance and Aecon's own release confirm.

The second contract, worth C$1.3 billion, went to Aecon and Siemens Energy for the Turbine Generator Replacement project. Aecon holds the majority stake in that consortium and will run construction and material procurement. The job means installing 14 new steam turbine rotors, overhauling four generators with stator rewinds, and adding new control and monitoring systems, according to the World Construction Network.

AtkinsRéalis CEO Ian L. Edwards said the company brings decades of CANDU reactor refurbishment experience to the project, and that the work will help secure "reliable, affordable and low-carbon electricity for Ontario over the coming decades," according to IndexBox. Joe St. Julian, AtkinsRéalis's president of nuclear, pointed to CANDU's ability to run on natural, unenriched uranium as a genuine energy security advantage, reducing dependence on foreign enrichment at a time of geopolitical uncertainty.

Aecon senior vice president Aaron Johnson said the team is applying "lessons learned" from the Darlington Refurbishment project, which recently wrapped up, according to Ground News.

Jobs and Economic Projections

The project is projected to generate roughly 30,500 jobs annually during construction and support 7,500 jobs across Canada over the plant's operating life, according to figures cited by Yahoo Finance and the World Construction Network. Canada's CANDU supply chain is 85% domestic, spanning more than 250 businesses and supporting 90,000 jobs nationwide, according to IndexBox.

The Ontario government says more than 90% of project spending will stay inside the province, and estimates the refurbishment could add C$41.6 billion to Canada's GDP, per the World Construction Network. Those are government projections, not audited outcomes.

Once complete, the refurbishment is expected to give Pickering up to 2,200 megawatts of capacity, enough to power more than two million homes, adding up to 38 years of life to the plant's four CANDU reactors.

Market Response and Risk Factors

Aecon shares (TSX: ARE) have been climbing on the news. The stock is up 52.24% year-to-date and carries a market cap of roughly C$3.24 billion, according to TipRanks, which described technical sentiment on the stock as a "Strong Buy."

But TipRanks also flagged a real risk. Aecon still has to manage margin pressure and legacy project issues elsewhere in its business. Complex nuclear and industrial construction jobs have a track record of cost overruns industry-wide, and TipRanks noted that could eat into profits even as the backlog grows. That's a fair caution for a multi-year megaproject with regulatory approvals still pending at several stages.

The project's next real test comes when the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission decides whether to approve full-scale construction starting in January 2027. Whether the promised job numbers and GDP contribution materialize as projected, and whether Aecon and its partners can execute without the kind of overruns that have plagued other nuclear refurbishments, remains to be seen over the life of the contract.