By Rob Nicholson
Featuring Aida Cipolla, Graeme Johnston & Simon Irish
July 14, 2026

Key points

• Private-sector innovation, rising power demand, supportive policy and new investment models are driving a new era of growth for nuclear energy.

• Electrification, industrial growth, AI and data centers are increasing demand for reliable, always-on power, strengthening the case for nuclear.

• Governments are helping enable growth by creating supportive policy frameworks and de-risking first-of-a-kind projects to attract private capital.

• The sector’s next challenge is scaling deployment, with regulatory approvals and supply chain capacity emerging as key constraints.

The global nuclear industry is entering a defining moment – one shaped not only by rising energy demand, but by a fundamental shift the companies driving innovation, how projects are financed, and appetite among governments and investors to back nuclear technologies.

A recent panel discussion at RBC Capital Markets’ 2026 Global Energy, Power, and Infrastructure Conference brought together industry leaders from across the nuclear ecosystem to explore the forces behind this resurgence. The discussion underscored that nuclear’s resurgence is not another short-lived cycle of interest. It reflects a convergence of private-sector innovation, unprecedented demand for reliable electricity, supportive public policy and new models of capital formation that are creating the conditions for large-scale growth.

Governments and large utilities historically led nuclear development. Today, private companies are bringing new market-driven thinking to the sector, combining decades of accumulated industry knowledge with new approaches to how nuclear technologies are designed, built and deployed.

For Simon Irish, CEO, Terrestrial Energy Inc., that shift makes today’s nuclear renaissance fundamentally different from previous waves of development. He describes it as “a secular, first-of-a-kind, never before seen moment” because, “for the very first time, it is the private sector that’s leading with nuclear innovation.”

“The nuclear industry has never had the opportunity of a private-sector innovator looking at the private market opportunity for nuclear power and saying, you can do this so much better,” he said.

That combination of technical expertise and private-market discipline is creating a more favourable environment for innovation.

While public debates around nuclear power often focus on safety or waste management, Irish argued that the industry’s central challenge has always been affordability.

“Nuclear has been held up for decades because of affordability and cost,” he told delegates. “Others will say it's safety. But it’s not really. Others will say it's waste. Not really. What has held up the transaction in the boardroom of those that wish to add additional nuclear power generation capacity to their business is affordability and cost, financeability.”

Aida Cipolla, CFO & CAO, Ontario Power Generation (OPG), emphasized the broad value nuclear delivers to ratepayers and communities – from affordable, reliable electricity to significant job creation and long-term economic growth. She noted that rising power demand, driven by electrification, industrial growth, artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centers, is increasing the need for reliable, around-the-clock generation.

“I think the world has changed. The reality is the demand for energy and electricity has significantly increased,” she said. “There's probably not a panel you go to under any topic that isn't about overall demand, generative AI, and datacenters.”

But Cipolla emphasized that demand growth extends well beyond technology companies.

“You go to any of the developing nations in the world and they are looking to double their power use,” she explained. “That's transportation and it's industrialization and it's electricity.”

For grid operators and utilities, this growth is forcing a reassessment of long-term generation strategies and creating renewed interest in firm, large-scale power generation technologies.

Alongside demand growth, panelists argue that reliability has become increasingly valuable in a digital economy. For datacenters and AI infrastructure, power interruptions are no longer merely operational inconveniences – they are major financial risks.

“When you need consistency in a datacenter,” Cipolla said, “Microsoft, Google, Meta – they can't go five minutes without power because that is billions of dollars for them in the revenue stream.”

This is where nuclear power offers a distinctive advantage, providing consistent baseload generation that supports both grid stability and long-term affordability for consumers.

“Nuclear provides you clean, reliable, 365 days, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day power,” she noted, adding that, as a result, some jurisdictions that previously planned to retire nuclear assets are now extending plant lifetimes while simultaneously investing in both large-scale reactors and small modular reactor (SMR) technologies.

The nuclear renaissance also carries a broader economic case. Cipolla emphasized that new nuclear projects can support employment, industrial capability and long-term economic growth.

“This renaissance is real, but it’s also about jobs. It's about GDP. It's about employment,” she said.

She pointed to Ontario’s SMR program, where projections show tens of billions of dollars in economic impact, thousands of construction jobs and long-term operational employment.

Beyond those direct benefits, nuclear deployment can help countries build domestic supply chains, expand export capabilities and secure first-mover advantages in emerging global markets, creating economic value that extends well beyond the electricity produced by a facility.

Another major factor behind the industry's momentum is a more supportive policy environment.

Graeme Johnston, VP & Treasurer, Oklo Inc. (OKLO US) describes the current market as being shaped by “three converging forces”: demand growth, policy support and capital formation.

While datacenter demand may be the primary catalyst, he argued that policymakers have played a critical role in enabling the industry's resurgence.

“I think policymakers in the U.S. largely got things right,” he said. “They have helped policy go from a headwind into a tailwind.”

Regulatory reforms, licensing improvements and government-led nuclear initiatives have created a more constructive environment for investment, reducing uncertainty and helping projects move forward more efficiently, he adds.

Capital is following opportunity

As this policy support has strengthened, investment has begun to flow into the sector at increasing scale.

“That has led to demand, a constructive policy environment, and now capital formation,” Johnston explained.

He points to growing activity across the investment spectrum, from venture capital backing advanced reactor developers to infrastructure investors and lenders supporting project deployment.

Governments still have a crucial role to play in financing first-of-a-kind projects.

“The government needs to put risk capital into those true first projects that don't have any operating data,” Johnston argues. “They need to share in that risk with the private sector.”

Cipolla reinforced this point, highlighting financing structures that combine public and private capital to de-risk projects and attract institutional investors as confidence grows.

Despite the optimism around the current nuclear renaissance, significant challenges remain.

Advanced nuclear developers are now focused on moving from first-of-a-kind projects to fleet-scale deployment.

“The great prize,” Irish said, “is the speed to which you can achieve fleet deployment.”

To reach that goal, developers must navigate two critical bottlenecks: regulation and supply chains.

“The pinch points are regulatory,” he explained. “You have to get your technology through the regulation process. And you have to look at the supply chain.”

Developers that can navigate those challenges and deploy at scale stand to capture significant market opportunities in the decades ahead, he said.