CANADIAN ENRICHMENT | FUEL & FUEL CYCLE
Why Canada needs its own enrichment
LIS Technologies’ CEO and executive chairman tell NEI why Canada needs to develop domestic uranium enrichment capabilities and how it can overcome the hurdles in pursuing this path.
By Jackie Park
AS CANADA LOOKS TO BUILD next generation reactors industry experts argue that the missing link in its otherwise robust nuclear supply chain is domestic uranium enrichment – a step that could help the country secure energy independence and a competitive edge in the global clean energy race. Advanced laser enrichment technology company LIS
Technologies’ CEO and co-founder, Christo Liebenberg, and executive chairman and president, Jay Yu, expand on why Canada needs to develop domestic uranium enrichment capabilities and how the North American country can overcome the hurdles in pursuing this path.
NEI: Why do you believe Canada needs a domestic uranium enrichment programme? Liebenberg: Canada has always wanted to get into enrichment, from as far back as the early 1990s. For more than 30 years, it wanted to own essentially everything in the whole nuclear fuel supply chain. Now, the only thing the country does not have any capability in is, indeed, enrichment.
If you look at Canada’s reactors, like the CANDU [CANada Deuterium Uranium] reactors, they don’t need enriched
uranium. They use either natural or very low-enriched uranium. So, traditionally, Canada has been okay with just natural uranium. But now, companies like Cameco want to complete the whole fuel cycle because it has aspirations for advanced reactors, which need high-assay low-enriched uranium. Yu: Canada currently relies on foreign countries for enrichment, with legal restrictions prohibiting such activities. With emerging nuclear technologies like Westinghouse’s eVinci microreactor requiring enriched uranium, and Canada wanting to take part, it wants to build its enrichment capability, just like the US is currently building back its capabilities in enrichment and the nuclear fuel cycle.
NEI: What has stood in the way of Canada building enrichment capabilities? Yu: I think it was frowned upon because of the bad PR around nuclear bombs. That is one of the cornerstone issues for Canada, viewing it more in the traditional sense of “nuclear enrichment is for weapons” – but actually, its use in advanced reactors and their ability to provide clean energy to the country should be the focus.
Above: Although Canada is a major exporter of uranium it currently relies on foreign countries for enrichment, with legal restrictions prohibiting such activities
www.neimagazine.com | November 2025 | 35
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