Canada is one of the world’s leading nuclear power nations.
It supplied 24 per cent of global uranium in 2024, making it the world’s second-largest producer. It is an $800-million-a-year industry that directly employs more than 2,000 Canadians at mine sites, more than half of whom are residents of northern Saskatchewan.
With Ontario Power Generation leading the way, Canada is also a leader in the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), which have attracted interest and development plans in other provinces, such as Nova Scotia.
Yet one crucial step in the nuclear industry is missing here – enrichment, which is the process of increasing the percentage of the uranium-235 isotope in natural uranium for use as reactor fuel.
Controversially, this fuel can be used to make nuclear weapons when enriched beyond the levels required for civilian energy production. Current global geopolitical conflicts make the politics of enrichment more visible and raise proliferation concerns as the distance from civilian-fuel grade to a more sensitive fuel cycle becomes shorter
Today, uranium mined and processed in Canada must be exported to the United States for enrichment before being returned for use as reactor fuel.
But as a new generation of SMRs – most of which require enriched uranium as fuel – are being prioritized, this raises a strategic question: should Canada complete the nuclear fuel cycle at home?