Overview

Canada's nuclear industry has many parts – electricity generation, uranium mining, CANDU technology, nuclear medicine, and other applications benefiting agriculture and industry. It has a long history, dating back to the middle of the last century.

Nuclear electricity stations supplied about 15 per cent of the electricity used by Canadians in 2008. In Ontario, nuclear power supplies more than 50 per cent of the province's electricity.

There are 22 Canadian-designed and built CANDU nuclear reactors in Canada, two of which have reached the end of their service lives and are in a safe shutdown state. There are another 12 CANDU nuclear reactors in other countries around the world.

Canada is the world's largest producer of natural uranium. About 21 per cent of total world production comes from Saskatchewan mines.

Over several decades, Canada has also provided more than 50 per cent of the world's medical isotopes for nuclear medicine, used in 60,000 procedures per day – 5,000 of those in Canada.

In this section of our website, we will show you how the nuclear industry works and why it is so important to our country.