Nuclear industry in Canada

Nuclear industry in Canada is an active business and research sector, producing about 15% of its electricity in nuclear power plants of domestic design. Canada is the world's largest exporter of uranium, and has the world's second largest proven reserves. Canada also exports nuclear technology within the terms of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory, and is the world's largest producer of radioactive medical isotopes.

Canada has a long history of uranium mining. Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited was among the earliest mining entities to work with radioactive ores. Originally owned by the gold prospector Gilbert Labine, Eldorado began to prospect for pitchblende ore in 1929 and set up the Port Radium mine in the Northwest Territories four years later. Initially worked for the then more valuable radium deposits, it also became Canada's first uranium-producing operation. When the demand for uranium increased during World War II, Eldorado became involved in further prospecting around Canada. An urgent need for uranium in quantity arose with the inception in 1942 of the Manhattan Project, the joint British-United States-Canadian undertaking which eventually brought forth the atomic bomb. Initially Canada's role was to supply uranium raw material.

The government nationalized the company in 1944. A year after establishing the Atomic Energy Control Board the government lifted the private prospecting ban that had been in force and offered incentives to private prospectors in 1946. This ushered in the "uranium rush", leading to over 10,000 radioactive ore discoveries, most notably the deposits in the Athabasca region of Saskatchewan.

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