May 7, 2025 – Ottawa
Canada’s Competition Bureau is stepping up its scrutiny of BWX Technologies’ proposed acquisition of Toronto-based nuclear services firm Kinectrics, amid concerns the deal could harm competition in the country’s nuclear medicine sector.
On Tuesday, the Bureau announced it had obtained court orders from the Federal Court of Canada requiring three major players in the nuclear industry—Bruce Power, Ontario Power Generation (OPG), and Framatome Canada—to produce detailed records related to the deal. These include data on transaction agreements, production capacity, sales, and competitive dynamics.
The Bureau is probing whether the acquisition, announced in January 2025, would substantially lessen or prevent competition in the supply chain for medical isotopes—radioactive substances used to diagnose and treat serious health conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
Both BWX Technologies and Kinectrics are active at multiple stages of the medical isotope value chain. Kinectrics, through its joint venture Isogen with Framatome Canada, enables isotope production using CANDU reactor technology in partnership with Bruce Power. BWX, a U.S.-based nuclear firm with facilities in Ontario and British Columbia, is already a major player in isotope processing and drug manufacturing, and partners with OPG in the isotope sector.
The Competition Bureau has also issued supplementary information requests to BWX Technologies and Kinectrics, signalling an intensification of its review under Canada’s merger rules. Such requests can be made within the initial 30-day review window for notifiable transactions that meet thresholds set under the Competition Act.
The proposed deal raises particular concerns due to the vertically integrated and concentrated nature of the nuclear medicine industry in Canada. With CANDU reactors providing the backbone for isotope production, and only a handful of companies operating within the supply chain, consolidation could give the merged entity significant control over critical stages of the process.
Medical isotopes produced in Canada are used both domestically and globally. The country is a key supplier to international markets, leveraging its unique reactor infrastructure and public-private partnerships in the nuclear sector.
The Bureau’s investigation is ongoing, and there is currently no timeline for a final decision.
