Themes · general research

Nuclear power and small reactors

Nuclear utilities, uranium miners and enrichers, small modular reactor developers.

Can lose most

Can lose most of the money. Typical volatility 79%, typical worst fall −64%; 5 of 9 companies are more than half below their high. The companies move together (correlation 0.79): owning several of them is one bet.

Small-reactor developers are pre-revenue (Oklo $1.2 M of revenue on a $5.4 B valuation) and fell 76–87 % in the last 12 months after runs of 8–21×. Utilities and suppliers (Constellation, BWXT, Cameco) carry about half the drawdown.

Typical volatilityMedian 1-year volatility of the theme's companies (annualised daily moves).
79%
Typical worst fallMedian of each company's worst peak-to-trough fall in five years (or since listing).
−64%
Typical distance from the high
−62%
Typical 1-year return
−50%

How to hold it in the EU

US-listed ETFs have no KID and cannot be bought by EU retail investors; these UCITS lines can. One fund line spreads the single-company risk.

VanEck Uranium & Nuclear Technologies UCITS ETF A
ISIN IE000M7V94E1TER 0.55%Assets 1,775 M € Volatility 1y 36%Worst fall 1y −32%Since 2023-02-03
LineWhere
NUKL Xetra · EURFreedom24IBKR
NUCL London Stock Exchange · USDFreedom24?IBKR
NUCL Borsa Italiana · EURIBKR
NUCL Euronext Paris · EURIBKR
Global X Uranium UCITS ETF Acc
ISIN IE000NDWFGA5TER 0.65%Assets 530 M € Volatility 1y 44%Worst fall 1y −39%Since 2022-04-20
LineWhere
URNU Xetra · EURFreedom24IBKR
URNU London Stock Exchange · USDFreedom24?IBKR
HANetf Sprott Uranium Miners UCITS ETF Acc
ISIN IE0005YK6564TER 0.85%Assets 310 M € Volatility 1y 40%Worst fall 1y −40%Since 2022-05-03
LineWhere
U3O8 Xetra · EURFreedom24IBKR
URNM London Stock Exchange · USDFreedom24?IBKR

Green: available; dashed with “?”: the venue is offered, check the line in the terminal; crossed out: not available.

US theme ETFs (URA, NLR) are used only to measure the theme's risk: not buyable by EU retail.

The companies

Research data of 2026-10-15; where we score the company, its live Smart Score and red flags are shown.

Volatility: 1 year; worst fall and best/worst: 5 years or since listing; “12 m” = the share of rolling 12-month windows that at least doubled / at least halved.
TickerMarket capRevenue (y/y)P/SVolatility 1yWorst fallFrom high1 year12 m: ×2 / −50 %WhereOur rating
CEG
Constellation: nuclear power fleet
99.0 B$31.3 B$ (+26%)3×49%−51%−31%−27%20% / 0%Freedom24IBKR1/10Caution. Negative free cash flow in at least two of the last three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Accruals or the Beneish M-score are in the watch zone. More in the glossary →+2
CCJ
Cameco: uranium miner with a Westinghouse stake
35.4 B$2.5 B$ (−3%)14×55%−40%−39%−12%12% / 0%Freedom24IBKR2/10
BWXT
naval reactors and nuclear components
12.3 B$3.5 B$ (+23%)4×45%−44%−44%−32%3% / 0%Freedom24IBKR1/10Caution. Dividend Safety below 40 points. More in the glossary →
LEU
Centrus: uranium enrichment (HALEU)
2.5 B$474 M$ (+8%)5×89%−78%−72%−70%27% / 2%Freedom24IBKR1/10Caution. Share count growing 3–10 % a year over three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Accruals or the Beneish M-score are in the watch zone. More in the glossary →+1
UEC
uranium miner (in-situ recovery)
3.8 B$37 M$ (−44%)103×79%−64%−62%−50%23% / 1%Freedom24IBKRCaution. Negative free cash flow in at least two of the last three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Share count growing 3–10 % a year over three years. More in the glossary →+1
NXE
NexGen: uranium developer (Canada)
5.4 B$—n/m56%−54%−42%−10%11% / 0%Freedom24IBKR1/10Caution. Negative free cash flow in at least two of the last three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Share count growing 3–10 % a year over three years. More in the glossary →
OKLO
Oklo: small modular reactors, pre-revenue
5.4 B$1 M$n/m94%−83%−83%−83%32% / 2%Freedom24IBKR1/10Serious warning. Share count growing more than 10 % a year over three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Negative free cash flow in at least two of the last three years. More in the glossary →+1
SMR
NuScale: small modular reactor design
2.5 B$11 M$ (−81%)235×99%−89%−89%−87%28% / 25%Freedom24IBKRSerious warning. Share count growing more than 10 % a year over three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Negative free cash flow in at least two of the last three years. More in the glossary →+1
NNE
Nano Nuclear: micro-reactors, pre-revenue
699 M$< 1 M$n/m90%−78%−77%−76%29% / 11%Freedom24IBKRCaution. Negative free cash flow in at least two of the last three years. More in the glossary →Caution. Share count growing more than 10 % a year over three years. More in the glossary →

Survivorship: the list is of companies known in 2026; earlier names that went bankrupt or were taken private are missing, so the “×2” share is an upper bound.

The theme as a basket

Equal weights, monthly rebalance, 08.08.2022–14.10.2026, compared with the S&P 500.

Equal-weight basketCAGRVolatility 1yWorst fall1 year
OKLO SMR LEU UEC NXE CCJ BWXT+36%52%−59%−56%
S&P 500 (SPY)+15%16%−19%+13%

The window starts near the 2022 low, which flatters every basket. Past results do not predict future ones.

Base rates: how such bets usually end

Research results to keep in mind before any upside.

IPOs, 3 years38.5% of IPOs lost more than half in 3 years; 16.1% doubled, 0.5% grew 11× or more.

Jay Ritter, IPO statistics, Table 16e (9,195 IPOs 1975–2021), 23.03.2026

SPAC mergers−51% average 1-year return after a SPAC merger (2012–2024).

Ritter / Gahng–Ritter–Zhang, Table 15c (625 de-SPACs 2012–2024), 05.10.2026

Thematic ETFs−30% risk-adjusted over the first 5 years of specialised (thematic) ETFs.

Ben-David, Franzoni, Kim & Moussawi, RFS 36(3), 2023

Lottery stocks> 1% a month: how much “lottery” stocks (the biggest one-day jumps) underperform.

Bali, Cakici & Whitelaw, JFE 99(2), 2011

Where the gains come from4% of US stocks created all the net wealth since 1926.

Bessembinder, JFE 129(3), 2018

Volatility drag≈ 46% a year is lost to volatility at 96% volatility: +40 % a year on average compounds to about −6 %.

standard approximation: geometric mean ≈ arithmetic mean − σ²/2 (our arithmetic)

Source: Nasdaq historical closes 15.10.2021–14.10.2026; stockanalysis.com fundamentals 15.10.2026; justETF profiles and quotes 15.10.2026 · Research data of 2026-10-15 · Methodology and sources