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Nuclear stocks extended their rally Tuesday following last Friday’s executive orders from President Trump aimed at expanding U.S. nuclear energy production capacity from ~100 GW in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050.
Goldman Sachs analysts highlighted NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) and Cameco (CCJ) in particular as benefiting from the series of executive orders.
NuScale (NYSE:SMR) closed +17.4% and Centrus Energy (NYSE:LEU) finished +12.8% on Tuesday, surging to all-time intraday highs of $35.77 and $129.12, respectively.
Other strong gainers included Oklo (OKLO) +10.2%, Lightbridge (LTBR) +7.5%, Constellation Energy (CEG) +3.9%, Vistra (VST) +3.6%, Cameco (CCJ) +3%, BWX Technologies (BWXT) +2.4%, Uranium Energy (UEC) +2%.
Analysts said Trump’s latest orders seeking to revitalize the U.S. nuclear energy industry could pull the uranium market out of its lull – with uranium prices having dropped ~30% from peaks hit in 2023 – and reinvigorate uranium production in the U.S. to help meet surging power demand.
The orders “will provide further confidence that the Federal funds already earmarked to support the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain [will] get deployed quickly which in turn should attract more private investment,” Evercore ISI’s Nick Amicucci wrote.
The decision “paves the way for renewed contracting and long-term supply confidence,” said Marco Mencini, head of research at Plenisfer Investments.
“This is essentially a wartime defense measure,” Justus Parmar of Fortuna Investments said. “We produce only 1M lbs of uranium annually against a consumption of 50M lbs. Nuclear energy is no longer optional – it’s essential.”