Trump Put a Tariff on Canada's Uranium. What He Forgot Powers 94 U.S. Reactors.
The United States runs the largest nuclear fleet on Earth — 94 reactors generating roughly a fifth of America's electricity. And it sits on just 1% of the world's uranium reserves. Domestic production is virtually non-existent.
So where does the fuel come from? About a quarter comes from Canada — from ultra-high-grade mines in Saskatchewan, refined in Ontario, shipped south. Canada is the single largest foreign supplier of uranium to the US, and the second-largest producer on Earth.
In early 2025, Trump put a 10% tariff on Canadian energy and opened a national security investigation into uranium imports. He believed Canada needed to sell more than America needed to buy.
He had it exactly backwards.
As Cameco's CEO put it: there is "no substitute for uranium in a nuclear fuel bundle, and no elasticity to the demand." Unlike oil or steel, nuclear fuel has zero give. A reactor that runs out of fuel doesn't negotiate — it shuts down.
And the contradiction at the heart of Washington's strategy: the same administration probing Canadian uranium also signed an $80 BILLION nuclear partnership running straight through Cameco — a Canadian company. Threatening the supplier with one hand, depending on it with the other.
This is the story of the one resource America cannot mine, cannot refine at scale, and cannot do without — and why threatening the supplier was the last thing Washington should have done.
Sources: Mining.com, NucNet, The Canadian Press, Global News, The Hub, World Nuclear Association, Cameco, CBC News, Yahoo Finance.
🤖 TRANSPARENCY: This video was created with AI assistance — AI-generated voice, AI-assisted research and writing. Real sources, real analysis.
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