Canada has anchored its foreign policy in collective action since the early Cold War. As Joel Sokolsky has argued, alliance relationships “constitute nearly the sum total of Canada’s defence policy.” Yet for years under the previous government, Canada struggled to maintain those relationships, largely because of persistent underinvestment in defence. The spending shortfall drew sharp criticism — one commentator argued Trudeau posed a greater threat to the alliance than Trump did.

Prime Minister Carney has moved to correct that. In June 2025, he pledged to hit the NATO two percent of GDP defence spending target by March 2026, with quantum S&T positioned as a centerpiece of Canada’s defence agenda. The federal government’s Quantum 2030 implementation plan has laid out how the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) intend to integrate quantum S&T into defence operations. Across all three documents, collaboration with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and Five Eyes partners is framed not as optional but as a precondition for success.

Canada wants to become a world leader in quantum science and technology. The policy ambition is there, but not the historical memory. If policy makers want to understand how alliance collaboration can drive S&T innovation, they should look at the nuclear reactor site in Chalk River, Ontario.

A wartime reactor with Cold War consequences

Chalk River’s story begins during the Second World War. In August 1943, Prime Minister Mackenzie King hosted Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in Quebec City, where the leaders signed the Quebec Agreement, a pact to pool resources for nuclear weapons development. Canada helped negotiate the agreement but did not sign it — the classic middle power position: present at the table, contributing meaningfully, but not directing the outcome. The agreement created the Combined Policy Committee, which gave Canadian scientists access to the emerging atomic research community and set the stage for what Chalk River would become.

By that point, Canada had been part of the Manhattan Project, providing researchers and facilities in Montreal. When American general Leslie Groves restricted allied access to US sites in 1943 over espionage concerns, the Canadian teams pivoted. They independently pursued research on heavy water and natural uranium, building the foundations of a national nuclear capability. Collaboration was reinstated with the Quebec Agreement, but alliance tension did not end Canadian innovation. It accelerated it.

The Chalk River facility opened in 1944 and housed the first nuclear reactor outside the United States, the Zero Energy Experimental Pile (ZEEP). By 1947, the world’s first research reactor was operating on site, generating isotopes that made Canada a global leader in nuclear medicine. The facility employed over 500 scientists and skilled workers, attracted international experts, and was featured in a 1950 CIA assessment of Canada. Nearly all Canadian-mined uranium was sold to the US for atomic energy production under a bilateral agreement that lasted until 1960.

In 1952, the NRX reactor suffered a serious accident — a partial core failure that forced an emergency response. Roughly 150 American naval personnel, including a young Jimmy Carter, travelled to Chalk River to help shut down the damaged NRX reactor. The US Atomic Energy Commission subsequently wrote to President Eisenhower requesting funds to help Canada rebuild, citing the valuable assistance Canada provided in the atomic energy field. The Americans helped repair what the Canadians had built. By 1954, the rebuilt facility had produced the foundations of CANDU reactor technology, a Canadian design that now operates in countries around the world.

The blueprint for quantum

Canada succeeded in nuclear S&T by playing a leading role within a specific niche of scientific research and sharing results with allies. Equally important, Chalk River occupied a space where civilian and military innovation overlapped. Chalk River was run by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a civilian organization, yet its outputs supported the Canada-US military relationship for decades. Quantum 2030 calls for precisely this kind of civil-military bridge building, noting that leveraging civilian talent in the quantum S&T sector is the responsibility of DND/CAF.

As Michael Murphy has argued, “increased public investment in quantum science and technology can help secure Canada’s position within its alliance politics.” The Canadian S&T industry should identify gaps in allied capabilities and work to become the leading exporter of that technology, just as Chalk River once was for nuclear isotopes and reactor design.

The Trump complication

The current US presidency makes all of this harder. Tariffs, volatile trade policy, and a broader souring of the bilateral relationship have understandably pushed Canadians toward economic self-reliance. Supporting Canadian businesses matters, but I would challenge Canadian industry leaders to find ways to keep working with their American counterparts through the discomfort. Paradiplomacy, the building of relationships outside the government-to-government channel, is critical. 

Institutions like the Permanent Joint Board on Defence remain active, keeping lines of communication open on continental defence. The Trump administration, for all its chaos, has shown strong interest in the technology sector and potentially in quantum.

Alliance relationships are the connective tissue of Canada’s S&T ecosystem. The Chalk River example shows that even during periods of alliance tension, continuing to invest in innovation and share results paid off enormously. Withholding information or retreating into isolation would break with a foreign policy tradition that has served this country well since 1948. When General Groves shut Canadian scientists out of US facilities in 1943, Canada built its own reactor. When that reactor was damaged in 1952, the Americans helped rebuild it. The pattern held because both sides kept investing in the relationship. That is the argument for continuing to do so now.

Joanne Archibald latest article, “What policy makers need to know about the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario,” is published in International Journal and available here.

© OpenCanada