Nuclear energy demand “is coming from all sides” — Dustin Garrow on what’s needed to scale

Nuclear power is accelerating faster than at any point in the past three decades, driven by AI‑era electricity demand, reactor restarts, and a global push for small modular reactors. But the uranium needed to fuel this expansion takes years to bring online, and as veteran nuclear‑fuel supply expert Dustin Garrow explains, the world has barely begun the mining required to keep up. Fresh from the World Nuclear Fuel Market meeting in Arizona, Garrow describes what he and others now call “nuclear future shock” — rapid change coming from every direction. China and India are scaling aggressively; Italy and Taiwan are reversing course; US utilities are refurbishing long‑idle reactors; and hyperscale data‑centre operators are exploring their own on‑site SMRs. As Garrow puts it, “It’s just coming from all sides.” He breaks down the structural split created by the Russia fuel ban, the scramble to rebuild Western conversion and enrichment capacity, and why the real bottleneck is mining: restarts nearly complete, greenfield projects slow, Kazakhstan’s uncommitted supply shrinking, and prices rising toward the levels needed to unlock new production. This is a deep‑dive into the most important constraints shaping nuclear’s comeback — from one of the industry’s most experienced fuel‑cycle experts. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction: Can uranium mining keep up with the nuclear boom? 0:36 Key takeaways from nuclear investors and the World Nuclear Fuel Market meeting 1:18 A market split in two: the Russia ban and the West’s fuel problem 2:58 “Without enough fuel, we can’t build these reactors” 4:32 Nuclear future shock: demand from every direction — Italy, Taiwan, India 6:18 From 400 to 500 GW: how fast capacity is really growing 7:02 Data centres and the race for power: Meta’s $500B Louisiana campus 10:12 Small modular reactors: Italy is betting on them 13:48 US policy tailwinds: faster permits, $80B, and “the age of electricity” 15:56 Mining is the bottleneck: restarts, greenfields and rising prices 23:42 Avoiding a 2030s supply crisis: what has to happen