Canada: Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations (SOR/2000-204)
Canada's Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations set what an applicant must submit for separate CNSC licences to prepare a site for, construct, operate, decommission or abandon a reactor facility, and require a decision on a site-preparation licence within 24 months of the review notice, excluding listed periods. They do not issue any licence.
- Category
- Laws, rules and executive directives
- Status
- In effect
- Instrument
- final rule · Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations, SOR/2000-204; made by the CNSC on 31 May 2000 under s. 44 of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act; approved by P.C. 2000-784 of 31 May 2000
- Issued by
- Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, approved by the Governor in Council
- Jurisdiction
- Canada
- Affects
- National reactor licensing, Siting
- In effect from
- 31 May 2000 · actual · day
- Expiry or completion
- None recorded
- Operative text
- Canada: Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations (SOR/2000-204), consolidated text (Consolidated regulations current to 2026-09-30, last amended 2025-10-30)
- Record reviewed · next review
- 2026-10-18 · 2027-04-18 (dates our review of this record; not a statement of the measure's present legal effect)
Legal and geographic scope
Regulations under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act that apply to Class I nuclear facilities. A Class IA nuclear facility is a nuclear fission or fusion reactor or subcritical nuclear assembly, or a vehicle equipped with a nuclear reactor. They set the information required in applications for separate licences to prepare a site (s. 4: site evaluation process, susceptibility to human activity and natural phenomena, environmental baseline programme), to construct (s. 5: proposed design and how site characteristics are taken into account), to operate (s. 6: including a final safety analysis report), to decommission (s. 7) and to abandon (s. 8). For a licence to prepare a site, the Commission must decide within 60 days whether the application is sufficient to begin review and must render its decision within 24 months of posting notice of the review, excluding listed periods (ss. 8.1-8.3). The Regulations do not issue any licence.
Not approved or still pending
Establishes no licence or project status. The content of the 2025-10-30 amendment (SOR/2025-219, cited at s. 3) and the 2012 timeline amendment (SOR/2012-288) were not opened separately; CNSC regulatory documents on site evaluation and design were not reviewed.
Dated lifecycle
- 31 May 2000 · actual · day · Issued — Made by the CNSC and approved by P.C. 2000-784; registered 31 May 2000. (Canada: Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations (SOR/2000-204), consolidated text)
- 31 May 2000 · actual · day · Took effect — Section 15: in force on the day approved by the Governor in Council (P.C. 2000-784 dated 31 May 2000). (Canada: Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations (SOR/2000-204), consolidated text)
Definitions in this instrument
- Class IA nuclear facility (s. 1): A nuclear fission or fusion reactor or subcritical nuclear assembly, or a vehicle that is equipped with a nuclear reactor.
Legal definition used by these Canadian regulations only; SMRMap's inclusion rule for SMRs is separate and unchanged.
Related instruments
Projects or designs named by the source
- None. Location in this jurisdiction does not make a project eligible for, or approved under, this measure.
Sources
- Canada: Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations (SOR/2000-204), consolidated text (government_primary, revised 30 Sep 2026, accessed 2026-10-18)