A nuclear energy renaissance is upon us. The gloomy early 2000s, when anti-nuclear sentiment was on the rise, reactors were prematurely shut down and uranium prices hit historic lows, are seemingly in the rear-view mirror.
According to the World Nuclear Association, there are currently 75 new reactors under construction globally with about 120 more planned in the near term. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in late 2025 that 37 countries are developing nuclear-power programs.
In Canada, refurbishments of existing large-scale reactors are being completed. The first small modular reactor (SMR) in the G7 is scheduled to come online in 2030 in Ontario with three more planned. Alberta and Saskatchewan are considering adding nuclear power to their energy mix while advanced nuclear reactors are even being pitched to alleviate the persistent energy struggles in Northern Canada.
The industry has argued that regulatory timelines for new nuclear are too burdensome, which is causing stalled projects, cost overruns and curtailment of nuclear’s full potential. These are reasonable concerns because of the enormous front-end capital expenditure, especially for large grid-scale reactors.
Getting the policy and regulatory regime working to enable the building of reactors is critical, but it is only half of the solution. Their operation is just as important and as strategic.
The Canadian Nuclear Association predicts that Canada will adopt billions of dollars worth of new and advanced nuclear technologies – large light-water reactors, SMRs and micro modular reactors – all of which will be deployed in Canada for the first time.
These technologies have one thing in common. They require enriched uranium to operate. Their supply chains and operational needs are different and more risk-exposed than what Canada has historically operated in the nuclear field.
This presents a key question. What are we doing to prepare for, and secure, the operations of these new reactors? More precisely, how can we build toward fuel security for our next generation of nuclear reactors?
It is admirable that Canada is the first G7 nation to deploy an SMR, but Canada is also the only G7 nuclear nation without a domestic uranium-enrichment capacity. While we may be pioneering the deployment of SMR technologies, we are not developing in tandem their full range of operational supports. Rather, we remain dependent on importing the fuel required.
It makes little sense for governments and ratepayers to underwrite the necessary large capital expenditures of these new reactors without maximizing certainty on operational costs and supply. It is like commissioning the building of a skyscraper without knowing the cost of the steel to build it.
Canada’s advantage on SMRs will not come to fruition without a focused development of a domestically anchored advanced-reactor supply chain. This could include uranium enrichment, deconversion, fuel fabrication and fuel recycling.
A recent white paper from Nuclear Potential Canada estimated Canada’s likely levels of demand for enriched uranium and articulated the value proposition if the country pursued a domestic uranium enrichment facility.
The white paper estimates a modest enrichment facility will employ up to 400 people and contribute $150 million annually to Canada’s GDP. Beyond economic value, enrichment would bolster the country’s energy security and global energy position, as well as harness the full value of our natural uranium resources, which are the third largest in the world.
The Canadian Association of Small Modular Reactors warned in a recent white paper of the threat posed by Russia’s dominance of the enriched fuels market. It wisely recommended that the federal and provincial governments work together to secure a domestic uranium enrichment facility.
Russia currently supplies 43 per cent of the world’s enriched uranium, so Canada could both reliably satisfy domestic demand and help wean Western allies off their reliance on Russia.
Many Canadians now appreciate that it is a strategic and economic loss to not refine more of our own oil and gas in Canada.
Without a domestic uranium enrichment capacity, we are on track to make a similar but even worse mistake because enrichment is the highest-profit step in the uranium value chain. If we don’t harvest the economic benefit from enrichment, someone else will, at our expense.
The elegance of Canada’s historic CANDU reactor proposition was that Canada was not just selling a reactor design but also access to a secure supply chain and supporting infrastructure for the reactor’s life cycle. Canada ought to be emulating that same value proposition with the next generation of reactors by building out a world-leading advanced reactor supply chain.
The forthcoming federal nuclear energy strategy is the right place to be signalling forethought on fuel security for Canada’s multi nuclear technology future.
Enabling reactors through optimal regulation and stable policy is the necessary first step. Ensuring operational security to enhance our energy security is the natural evolution.
