Canadian uranium stocks rose on Monday after a report suggested the United States may expand its own domestic stockpile of the metal in order to avoid Russian supplies as it looks to produce more electricity.

Saskatoon-based
Cameco Corp.

‘s share price jumped by nearly 10 per cent and hit a record high on Monday, which indicates investors believe the miner would stand to benefit from a surge in U.S. demand. Other Canadian uranium company stocks,

including those of Toronto-based IsoEnergy Ltd. and Vancouver’s NexGen Energy Ltd., also rose by as much as 10 per cent.

The rally followed a Bloomberg News interview with

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said the Donald Trump administration is looking to boost the country’s uranium reserves.

“We’re moving to a place — and we’re not there yet — to no longer use Russian enriched uranium,” he told Bloomberg at a conference in Vienna. “We hope to see rapid growth in uranium consumption in the U.S. from both large reactors and small modular reactors.”

Nuclear fuels are by far Canada’s fastest-growing energy export, rising by almost 50 per cent to roughly $420 million in July, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.

Uranium mining in Saskatchewan, which is home to the

world’s largest high-grade deposits

, has ramped up in recent years in response to surging global prices.

Cameco, a big player in the province, has been riding a wave of investor optimism that has buoyed the wider uranium industry, with its stock price rising by about 60 per cent since the beginning of the year. On Monday alone, its market cap rose by $4.6 billion.

China and other countries are building both large and small nuclear reactors as an alternative to emissions-heavy power plants fuelled by oil and gas. Western countries are also attempting to exclude supplies from Russia — a major uranium producer — from their own domestic markets.

  • U.S. looks to boost strategic uranium reserve
  • Cameco reports stronger earnings amid optimistic outlook

The Trump administration is attempting to “

usher in a nuclear renaissance

,” with a series of executive orders that are aimed in part at speeding up licensing and testing of new nuclear projects. During Trump’s first term in 2020, the U.S. government created a strategic uranium reserve, which is meant to serve as a backup supply for the country’s nuclear power plants and to encourage more domestic production.

• Email: rsouthwick@postmedia.com