{"id":759494,"date":"2026-07-13T01:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/759494\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:34:16","slug":"power-hungry-nuclear-renaissance-a-boon-for-canadas-mining-and-reactor-sectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/759494\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Power hungry’: Nuclear renaissance a boon for Canada’s mining and reactor sectors"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> General Manager at Cameco’s Cigar Lake Operation Kirk Lamont stands for a photograph above ground during a media tour of Cameco’s Cigar Lake uranium mine in Cigar Lake, Sask., Monday, June 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\\Liam Richards – The Canadian Press <\/p>\n

CIGAR LAKE, SASK. \u2014 Taryn Roske lost her job twice when the nuclear industry had ground to a halt. <\/p>\n

The Cameco employee and hundreds of others were laid off from the company’s Rabbit Lake mine in northern Saskatchewan after it shut down in 2016. <\/p>\n

“I had to sell my house,” Roske said in a recent interview. “I ended up taking a loss on that, because the housing market was in a horrible place.” <\/p>\n

Four months later, she got a job at Cameco’s McArthur River mine and Key Lake mill. But they stopped operating two years later, and more layoffs followed. <\/p>\n

“They were able to give me that information (about the closure) ahead of time, so I could start applying for other jobs,” Roske recalled. <\/p>\n

She ended up getting a position at the company’s Cigar Lake mine, where she has worked ever since. <\/p>\n

Still, she added, it was a stressful time for many in the industry. <\/p>\n

“I think people thought that it was kind of over and that we weren’t going to make a comeback. <\/p>\n

“But in the last few years, it’s proved otherwise.” <\/p>\n

Following about a decade of stagnation, the nuclear industry is now seeing what some are calling a renaissance. <\/p>\n

Countries across the globe, from China and India to the United States, are either building or promising to construct more nuclear power plants. <\/p>\n

In Canada, the federal government has proposed 10 new reactors by 2040. Ottawa also wants to sell Canadian-made reactors to more countries and double uranium exports. <\/p>\n

Ontario is building a small modular reactor at the existing Darlington station in Bowmanville, northeast of Toronto. Saskatchewan is also planning to construct a small reactor in the 2030s. <\/p>\n

<\/a> Cameco’s first woman jet bore operator Taryn Roske, stands for a photograph above in an equipment room a media tour of Cameco’s Cigar Lake uranium mine in Cigar Lake, Sask., Monday, June 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\\Liam Richards <\/p>\n

Uranium is the main fuel component in most nuclear reactors. The radioactive metal is made into pellets that reactors use to create heat and generate electricity. <\/p>\n

Saskatoon-based Cameco, which formed in 1988 following a merger between two Crown corporations, is one of the world’s largest uranium producers. <\/p>\n

At Cameco, better market conditions have allowed the company to restart operations. <\/p>\n

In 2022, McArthur River and Key Lake resumed production. Cigar Lake is also planning to start extracting uranium from a newer section of the mine in 2030. <\/p>\n

At Rabbit Lake, however, production remains suspended. <\/p>\n

“The need for nuclear power — we see it,” said Kirk Lamont, general manager of Cigar Lake. <\/p>\n

“People are power hungry.” <\/p>\n

Before its recent ascent, the industry’s downfall can be traced back to the Fukushima disaster in Japan. <\/p>\n

In March 2011, an earthquake triggered a tsunami that overwhelmed the Daiichi nuclear power plant, resulting in meltdowns and explosions that released radioactive material into the environment. <\/p>\n

The earthquake and tsunami killed about 22,000 people, and thousands more resettled elsewhere due to radiation. Uranium prices plunged, and public attitudes over nuclear power soured. <\/p>\n

“The world said, ‘We don’t need — we don’t want — this uranium. We don’t want nuclear power,'” Lamont recalled. “It was devastating to the people that work (at Cameco).” <\/p>\n

Peter Elder, the chief scientific officer with Canadian Nuclear Labs, said public opinion started to change a few years ago for two main reasons. <\/p>\n

Countries want to reduce their emissions while meeting growing electricity demands, he said. Nuclear power produces no emissions, though waste needs to be safely stored away. <\/p>\n

Countries also want a reliable energy source they can control. For example, those that use nuclear power are better equipped to handle disruptions to the oil and gas supply chain, Elder said. <\/p>\n

“Once you build (nuclear), it’s relatively safe from someone not turning off your tap nearly as easily as oil or natural gas.” <\/p>\n

Some tech giants in the United States have also inked deals to have their data centres powered by nuclear energy, Elder added. <\/p>\n

“They’re going to pay a bit of a premium for that, because they want really high reliability on their electricity, something that you can’t right now get from any renewable source.” <\/p>\n

Japan has cited energy security as a reason to reopen some plants, after initially promising to phase them all out. <\/p>\n

In Canada, the mining sector is also capitalizing on the comeback. <\/p>\n

There are two companies building new mines in Saskatchewan. Denison Mines Corp. is working on the Wheeler River project, while NexGen Energy Ltd. is constructing its Rook I site. <\/p>\n

Production from both sites isn’t expected for another few years. But Elder said there’s more than enough uranium to go around. <\/p>\n

All of Canada’s uranium mines are located in the Athabasca basin of northern Saskatchewan. <\/p>\n

“If you look at the capacity in Saskatchewan, you could almost see that in the next few years it could triple,” Elder said. <\/p>\n

He added Canada will need a strong workforce if it wants to build more reactors. The country may also have to deal with longer timelines to get them constructed. <\/p>\n

<\/a> Cameco’s Cigar Lake uranium mine site seen from an airplane following a media tour in Cigar Lake, Sask., Monday, June 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\\Liam Richards <\/p>\n

At Cameco, the revival could mean additional investment. <\/p>\n

“It’s those contracts that we sign that are going to enable us and backstop the investment in growing our production as we can,” said Cory Kos, Cameco’s vice-president of investor relations. <\/p>\n

For Roske, the uranium resurgence has been a “huge blessing.” <\/p>\n

“It’s longevity in my career,” she said. “It’s given me 16 years now, and hopefully it’s long enough for me to retire.” <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 12, 2026. <\/p>\n

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"General Manager at Cameco’s Cigar Lake Operation Kirk Lamont stands for a photograph above ground during a media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[325147,103,325137,192,325148,325150,325140,205692,82118,325151,325139,79,325149,59291],"class_list":["post-759494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-cameco","tag-canada","tag-cigar-lake","tag-environment","tag-liam-richards","tag-northern-saskatchewan","tag-nuclear-industry","tag-nuclear-power-plants","tag-nuclear-reactors","tag-rabbit-lake","tag-sask","tag-science","tag-taryn-roske","tag-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}