Energy hungry data centres are bringing dead reactors to life as nuclear demand soars: Cameco CEO

Tim Gitzel, chief executive officer at Cameco, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the company's earnings and the global demand for uranium.

It’s no secret that data centres require enormous amounts of energy, but as modern infrastructure grows, so does the need to power it.

This is driving an unprecedented demand for nuclear power and since uranium is the essential fuel needed to run nuclear reactors, Saskatchewan-based Cameco, the second largest producer of uranium in the world, sits at the heart of this shift.

One thing that stands out in his decades-long career in the nuclear space is the use of data centers in the last year or two, says Tim Gitzel, the chief executive officer of Cameco.

“The AI, the data centers, the hyperscalers. It’s demand increase like we haven’t seen, and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it yet,” says Gitzel.

He says new nuclear reactors are not enough to feed these power hungry energy centres.

“We’re bringing reactors that had been shut down, bringing them back on to feed them,” says Gitzel, about the reactivation of shuttered facilities like Three Mile Island and Palisades, for which Cameco is playing a key role.

In Michigan, the Palisades Nuclear Plant is currently undergoing a first-of-its-kind restart in U.S. history.

Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania is underpinned by a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to dedicate 100 per cent of the plant’s 835-megawatt output to its AI data centres.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time…and we’re probably in the best environment for nuclear that I’ve ever seen in four decades,” says Gitzel.

Shift in the way the world views nuclear power

Nuclear power is seeing a massive global surge in demand as the world faces what could be the largest energy crisis in history.

Cameco reported a significant increase in its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday, with net profit rising to $131 million or $0.30 per share, on $845 million in revenue.

• ‘Uranium prices have skyrocketed’: Canada at core of uranium squeeze

Growth was driven by higher realized uranium prices, increased sales volumes, and improved performance from its investment in Westinghouse, which designs and helps build nuclear reactors.

Gitzel highlights a major shift in how countries view nuclear power. It has evolved from being just a clean energy goal to a critical matter of national security.

With the Strait of Hormuz closed and global oil supplies disrupted, nuclear power has become an increasingly attractive option. Unlike fossil fuel plants, nuclear facilities store their fuel on-site, providing enough energy to run for up to six years without a resupply, says Gitzel.

“You don’t have to put it through a pipe. You don’t have to put it in a ship and put it around the Strait of Hormuz or through any canals. It’s right there,” he says.

He says the company is already seeing a rise in interest in North America, particularly in the U.S., which plans to triple its nuclear output by 2050 with 200 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity. It aims to do this by launching small modular reactors, microreactors, and restarting older plants.

How Cameco plans to meet the surge in demand

Cameco’s core operations are anchored by its two flagship resources in Saskatchewan: Cigar Lake and McArthur River.

Beyond Canada, Gitzelemphasizes the company’s strategic production in Kazakhstan, which holds the world’s largest uranium resources. Gitz says the company is currently waiting to finalize contracts before boosting production in Kazakhstan.

Two months ago, it signed a $2.6 billion deal with India, entering a long-term agreement to supply approximately 22 million pounds of uranium concentrate to India’s Department of Atomic Energy.

It also has significant deals across Europe, and Asia, says Gitzel.

“So supply lines are still going. We’re looking to the future. The good news with nuclear is that we have a bit of a timeline where we can see the demand coming,” says Gitzel.

“It takes a while to build nuclear plants, and so we see the demand coming, so we gauge our production, along with when we see new reactors coming on.

Gitzel says Cameco creates demand for its own uranium through its Westinghouse stake because every time Westinghouse wins a contract to build a new reactor, it locks in years of uranium supply to Cameco producers.

“The future looks very, very strong for us, and we’re excited to be in nuclear space,” says Gitzel.