Both nations are betting big on nuclear power to meet surging energy demands from AI, data centers, and an increasingly electrified economy
North America just went nuclear. Not in the geopolitical sense, but in the literal, build-a-bunch-of-reactors sense.
Canada announced a sweeping Nuclear Energy Strategy on June 22, targeting the construction of up to ten large-scale reactors by 2040. Meanwhile, south of the border, Westinghouse has laid out plans for ten new AP1000 reactors of its own with construction targeting completion by 2030. Two countries, twenty reactors, and a shared realization that the continent’s power grid isn’t ready for what’s coming.
What Canada is building #
Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson outlined the strategy, which includes two reactors already under construction and aimed for completion by 2035. At least one of those will be built outside of Ontario, spreading nuclear capacity beyond the province that has historically dominated Canada’s atomic energy landscape.
Canada plans to double its nuclear workforce from roughly 90,000 to more than 180,000 workers.
The strategy also has an export angle. Canada intends to expand uranium exports and push CANDU reactor technology into foreign markets. Regulatory approval processes are set to be expedited.
The estimated cost for Canada’s nuclear buildout exceeds $100 billion.
The American side of the equation #
The US push has been building since 2025, when executive orders from the Trump administration set the stage for accelerated nuclear development. Westinghouse’s ten AP1000 reactors represent the most concrete commitment, but the US Department of Energy is also backing multiple advanced reactor projects, including Small Modular Reactors and next-generation designs, with demonstration targets by mid-2026.
Nuclear fills the baseload gap with a reliability profile that renewables cannot match. A nuclear plant runs at full capacity roughly 90% of the time. Solar panels hit about 25%.
No formal joint initiative between the US and Canada was announced, but both nations are explicitly framing nuclear as central to energy security and reducing dependence on energy sources that can’t deliver consistent baseload power.
Why crypto miners should be paying attention #
Neither country mentioned cryptocurrency in their nuclear announcements. But Bitcoin mining is an energy arbitrage business. Miners seek the cheapest, most reliable power they can find. Nuclear energy provides 24/7 baseload power with minimal carbon emissions.
Several Bitcoin mining operations have already started co-locating near nuclear facilities or signing power purchase agreements with nuclear plants.
For investors in the broader energy and crypto sectors, uranium miners and nuclear technology companies are the most direct beneficiaries. Companies like Cameco, NexGen Energy, and Westinghouse’s parent company stand to gain from increased demand for fuel and reactor components. On the crypto side, in a post-halving Bitcoin environment where margins are already compressed, the difference between $0.03 per kilowatt-hour nuclear power and $0.06 grid power is the difference between profitability and shutting down rigs.
The risk, as always with nuclear, is timeline. Canada’s $100 billion price tag could easily climb. Westinghouse’s 2030 target for ten reactors is ambitious given that the last AP1000 projects at Plant Vogtle in Georgia ran years late and billions over budget.
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