9 Nuclear Stocks You'll Wish You Bought on This Dip (Buy Before It Takes Off Again)

It was one of the hottest sectors in the market at the end of last year. But now, nuclear stocks are all in a downtrend. Is now the time to buy the dip? Joining us today is MarketBe analyst Jeffrey Neil Johnson with a list of nine stocks in the nuclear sector that I'll have a really intriguing story and an even more interesting entry point with where this whole group of stocks is right now. So, Jeffrey, thank you for putting together this list. I know we're going to end with one of your favorite stocks in the nuclear story, so we'll get to that. But Jeffrey, I want to start out with why now is especially an interesting time for investors to be looking at investing in nuclear because right now they're not making the headlines. >> No. And I think that might be one of the reasons that now is the time to get into nuclear. Another one is the cooling off of the AI thesis has kind of driven nuclear down a little bit. And then you have some cyclical things in there as well that have kind of driven down the stock prices on all of these stocks across the sector because just like with AI, this sector kind of trades all at once. >> Yeah. Not only with AI, the biggest example I can think of of a more niche market is quantum computing. And every time that there's a new headline or new catalyst in one of the quantum computing companies, they all kind of rise at the same time. And I feel like nuclear is a similar story. when you have one catalyst for one nuclear company, then that nuclear story is back in the headlines and we see this group of stocks take off again. And so I think that makes right now the most interesting time to be looking at these nuclear stocks when right now there aren't really any major headlines, are there? >> No, there really I mean there's some that are just now starting to pop out. A couple we'll talk about uh during the show today, but uh really outside of the past 90 days, it's kind of been quiet. >> Well, let's just jump right into it. Again, nine stocks to cover today, so we're going to get going as quick as we can. The first sector of the nuclear story to talk about are the bigger players, and that's the power companies. Have we seen power companies in general, take the nuclear story out of it? What kind of a year have they had so far? >> You know, I think the energy sector in general has just been really volatile. Uh I think anybody that pays a power bill knows that that it's been fluctuating greatly. And you know, I look towards the future when the nuclear story can actually kind of stave off some of that volatility. >> Yeah, I think that's a good way to say it. And there's plenty of these giant power companies that are making huge investments into the nuclear energy buildout across the country. So, let's get into the power company stocks that you are looking at as part of the investing in nuclear energy story. >> Okay. So the two that I'm most interested in is Constellation which is CEG and then of course Next Energy which is NE. And I'm interested in both of them as kind of like anchors because they're really solid foundational stocks. You know they they have solid defensive modes. They have solid strategies for their future as far as nuclear goes. >> Solid strategies and also uh solid business plans. Nuclear isn't the only part of their story. They're also functioning power plants and huge companies. And so they have a little bit more supporting them. You'll you'll notice in their charts, they're not down quite as much as some of the other names we're going to get to later on in this video. But Constellation compared to Next Era, Constellation's down quite a bit more than Next Era is. Why would that be? >> I think that a lot of that has to do with the amount of money that they're spending right now. You know, Constellation is in the process of spinning up the Three-Mile Island reactor. And so, you know, that's that's that's a real cash flow problem right there. That's a lot of money being sucked into one place. And so I think that and then also just kind of like the the short theory for the energy market in general with all the troubles going on, you know, overseas and geopolitically, the energy market fluctuates on a daily basis based on, you know, tweets and and all kinds of stuff. And that instability and volatility has pushed a lot of these stocks down almost to their floor where entry points and accumulation points become very attractive. >> Yeah, the entry point again on constellation is is lower than where next era is and so is that analyst upside predictions too. We look at what the analysts have to say and it seems that there's more room to grow according to the analysts when you look at constellation the next era. Would you say that's true? Do you like one better than the other or how would you compare the two? >> You know, I would disagree with that. Um, I like I like Constellation because they have a lot of growth and they have a strong nuclear story, but I like Next Era specifically because they own Florida Power and they also just absorb Dominion Power and Dominion Power controls the flow of power through the AI corridor up in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. So they have an exceptional room to grow once they get those two portions integrated in. And they've also specifically said that they're looking at nuclear as a way to kind of fill in or backfill in the need that is aggressively growing in the Dominion Power um service zone. >> All right. Interesting. is probably a factor in why that stock price is a little bit higher today than where constellation's recovery has been since the downturn of the last 90 days or so. Now, these first two names might not be the typical nuclear names that you'd think of. We're going to get to some more of those names in a minute, but if you're looking for those pure play nuclear stories, make sure to check out this special report from marketbeat.com. It has a full list of the seven best nuclear stocks to invest in in 2026. Uh we'll talk about a couple of the names on this special report during this video, but definitely not all of them. And a lot of the names on the special report are also included in this nuclear buy the dip story we're getting into in this video. So make sure to check out this list, too, so you don't miss any of the potential names in the nuclear sector. You can scan the QR code or click the link in the description to get that free report right now on marketbeat.com. All right, Jeffrey. So moving from those power companies to another area of the nuclear story, that's the mining stocks, the companies involved in the uranium part of nuclear power. What is this sector been doing recently? >> You know, um miners have pulled back quite a bit as well. Um and that is because the uranium spot price has kind of fallen off a little bit as they open and close different parts of the world. That opens and closes access to uranium. So right now the spot price has dropped down to around $80 and that has caused a lot of these companies to kind of fall back to their floor because for instance some of them have guarantees from the government in the $80 range. So the prices that they're reaching now are the prices that the government has created a floor on their uranium price. So it's kind of a no-brainer to consider that their stock is also reaching the floor as well. >> Yeah. And you can see that in a few of these charts that we're going to look at. So what are the stocks that you are looking at specifically in the uranium mining story? I know there's a lot we could cover. Which are the ones you're looking at specifically? >> It's going to be Kamiko, which is CCJ, and you know, I consider them like the the solid domestic miner. They are the one that's backed by the government um at an $80 price floor for for their uranium. The second one I like is um UEC, and that's Uranium Energy Corp. And the reason that I like them is they have some really sophisticated ways to clean up uranium tailings and to extract more uranium from the dirt than for instance miners like Kamiko might be able to do. And then third and finally, I like Energy Fuels, which is UU y UU for use. And the primary reason I like them is that they've got a mine that they're spinning up in Utah. And they're not just a uranium play, they're also a rare earth play. Yeah, that's a big part of the story, too, is getting these rare materials. Uranium being one of them, but they also have that other factor that's also a booming market that's on a little bit of a pullback right now, too. So, I think both nuclear and the rarer sector are kind of on that that dip right now, but they're starting to bounce. And I want to look at that. I think it shows up probably most in the UEC chart where you saw a pretty sharp jump in the last couple of days. Still very far off of the highs that stocks saw late last year. But what's behind this little uh jump that we're seeing just in the last few days? >> Well, in the last few days, they're restarting production in their Wyoming hubs. And so, um investors are seeing that that restart is happening. And once that uh restart is completed and it comes online, they'll have more access to the materials that they need in order to make the uranium. So, it becomes a situation where investors are seeing the potential of what these mines could pull out of the ground. >> Yeah. The potential is something I want to talk about because looking at the stock chart, we're using UEC just because it's the last one that we talked about. But you look back at the end of January, the stock was up around $20. It's lost almost half of that ground right now. Has that story or the potential for the stock really fundamentally changed from January to now? Or is that purely market sentiment? I'm trying to explore a little bit more of why we saw such a downturn in a short amount of time for these types of stocks. Again, it's the drop in the uranium spot price, which of course draws off a lot of a lot of their value. But when that spot price goes back up, the price will also infinitely increase because miners work on a like a fixed ratio. It it takes the same amount of money to pull a pound of dirt out of the ground now today as it does tomorrow, but it's the spot price. So, when the spot price drops, right, then their free cash flow and their revenue drops just exponentially. It falls off. But when the spot price increases, the same thing happens. It goes up exponentially. So now that we're kind of at the the governmentbacked floor on the uranium spot price, then you can see that these companies have no choice but to kind of drop down. However, once the uranium demand kicks back up, because it's cyclical, once the uranium demand kicks back up again, those spot prices will increase and you will see an exponential return on value for these companies because just as fast as their net asset value goes down, it goes back up. >> Let's talk about that cycle a little bit and and what is it? What's the catalyst? What brings back the demand and the price for uranium? >> Well, there's there's a bunch of different catalysts. There's maintenance catalyst because different mines have to shut down and spin back up at different parts of the year based on the ground being frozen or it not being frozen based on maintenance requirements for different pieces of equipment and that sort of thing. And then there's also that same cycle that goes on within the industry where reactors have to have fuel pulled and and that sort of thing. But I think also there might be a little bit of like a fundamental issue there as well because you have um companies like Kamiko, they're hoarding uranium ore waiting for this super cycle to kick up with the small module reactors, the restart of three mile island, the replenishment of for instance the military fleet that's all going to need, you know, all of the submarines and all of the aircraft carriers. They're all going to need new fuel at different points and times and they cycle those things in so that there's a demand and then there's not a demand. So it creates kind of like a super cycle in the uranium spot price. And you could see uranium going below 80. But the thing about that is is that when it comes to domestically sourced uranium through the miners that we've talked about today, they are all backed at a spot price of $80 through the United States government. So it doesn't really matter how much lower the uranium spot price goes. It kind of creates this solid floor for all three of these companies where you can start looking to accumulate this on a dip day where for instance if the energy market's having a bad day, you might catch all three of these companies on a really decent low where their value is below the floor value of the actual company. And even looking at where all three of these stocks are today, analysts have a lot higher expectations than where the price action is today. And I think it's exactly what you just said, that demand that we anticipate coming down the road. And and will that be in the next 12 months? It's hard to say, but analysts seem to sit to think so. If you look at some of the price targets they have on these stocks, there's a 30 to almost 50% upside on all three of the names that you mentioned here. And so there seems to be a a good case that now would be an interesting entry point or at least an interesting time to consider buying the dip in the mining market. The big question anytime in a buy the dip video is could this dip go lower? But do you think the little bounce that we're seeing right now is a good indicator that maybe we've reached a bottom already? >> I think that it is because once the spot price gets down to about $80, there's not very much lower for instance the miners to go um and it it kind of changes the whole direction. and it creates like a mean reversion scenario where you could have a definite flip in it. It's one of those things where I wouldn't just run out and start buying stuff willy-nilly. I would I would definitely look at and watch the technicals of these companies and look for the dip days and monitor to see if they will go lower, but on a fundamental standpoint from a fundamental basis, these stocks are reaching the bottom. The whole sector is reaching the bottom fundamentally. Yeah, that bottom story can definitely be felt in the mining sector, but it's felt even more in the next sector of nuclear we're going to talk about, and that's the small modular reactors. There's a number of companies that fit this bill, and they were incredibly popular and very hot in the market towards the end of last year. They all peaked in that October time frame. But looking at these charts in this sector, Jeffrey, this one has been hit really hard. >> Yeah. And you know, I I'm a big fan of the entire nuclear sector, but the small module reactor sector is one of my favorites. Um, I was in the military and I was around small reactors when I was much younger. And so to see that technology go from, you know, a submarine or an aircraft carrier to potentially your backyard is very exciting. But there has definitely been a cooling period from the initial excitement phase of this until now. >> And what led to that cooling period? That's the big question before we get into the three names that you want to talk about in the sector. What led to the cooling off of the whole small modular nuclear idea? >> You know, I think that the the first thing was was the cooling off of the AI thesis and all the discussion around AI possibly being a bubble. these particular solutions have been put out there in the limelight specifically because of AI. So once AI started cooling off and once that high-tech thesis kind of started cooling then the picks and shovels plays the companies that are going to be providing power back to them also will cool and will cool significantly. Then you have on top of that that none of these companies have been really brilliant about throwing out their um marketing data about giving investors the bone that they need to to push this stock higher. And so, you know, when you jump that far up and then there becomes all of these questions about whether the technology will work or is it a science experiment, you know, is it even possible? Is it safe? Like all these questions start happening. It changes the sentiment for the stock and then when the sentiment for the stock changes and the companies say nothing in return, it just creates this slow drain. And that's kind of what's been happening. But it does not change the fundamental fact that regardless of AI, our power grid is falling apart and there's no other way to fix it than with small modular reactors. >> Yeah, there the thesis is still very much there for the need for these. I know one thing I've heard from other analysts we've had on the channel is that that the thesis is too far out. That the timeline for making these small modular reactors actually commercialized and functional and actually making an impact on that grid that you were just talking about is too long for investors to be paying the premium for the stock today for something that might not actually pay off for a number of years down the road. Do you think that's valid at all that the that the timeline is actually quite a few years out yet? I mean, I think if you're looking for a stock that you can grab today and it jumps 7,000% by tomorrow at noon, I do think that that's that's a it's not a good play for you. But what you need to look at is the fact that these stocks know that they're in their infancy. They all have gone from science experiment to approved designs. They're all moving through the pipeline and progressing towards commercialization. And so when you look at these stocks, you have to look at them like they're in their infancy. you look at them like early stage AI stocks, early stage quantum stocks, it's not a lot of difference because this is all like theoretical non-commercialized technology at this point. And so once these reactors start coming online, and yes, the timeline's 2030, but once they start coming online and they start making major catalysts, like they turn one on for testing or they turn one on for just supporting one small area of a town or something like that, you're going to start seeing these stocks jump to places where you're going to wish you would be able to get them at the prices that they're at today. Well, we are going to dive into those charts and those names in just a second, but I wanted to share if you want a detailed look at how to play all of the stocks that Jeffrey is talking about today. He also wrote an article for our website that Jeffrey writes at marketbeat.com multiple times a day. And he talked about these names in detail as well as kind of a timeline and a strategy for investing in all of these names. So, if you want a little bit more details, scan the QR code or visit the link in the description. We'll give you free access to look at that article that he wrote and just get a little bit more playbyplay on a strategy for looking at all of these names. I actually have one of them on my Bridget Spies watch list. If you're new to this channel, we add one stock per video we talk about to this paper trading watch list on marketbeat.com. Just market.com/bid. And I added this one right around Christmas when you and I were discussing this. SMR was one of your favorites. Well, right now it's definitely pulling down the performance of this paper trading watch list. And I I know that viewers are feeling the same way. Those who invested in this stock early on are feeling the losses of what is happening with this whole sector. So I feel like more than any of the other stocks that we're talking about in the nuclear sector, these small modular reactor stocks really kind of trade as a group. And one catalyst in one will likely move the whole sector. So let's get to those catalysts. What are some potential catalysts on the horizon for any of them that could help lift these stocks from the lows they're at right now? And a reminder, we have one additional stock to talk about. It's your favorite one in the nuclear sector. We're going to get to that right after these. >> Okay, so first we've got Oaklo and their ticker symbol is OKLO and they're, you know, probably one of the top as far as the small module reactor is going. Then you have the second one which is Newscale and their ticker symbol is SMR. And that one's probably my favorite because they're working on deals that service my um my home state. So I can watch them very closely and and actually kind of verify what they're doing. And finally, you have nanuclear and they're um NE and they're doing something in the small module reactor arena as well. But each one of these are kind of doing the same thing in different ways or they have value ad services on top of the small module reactor system that they're building and that's why I like each one. >> Yeah, they all three have very similar charts. You can see that the same big spike in October and then kind of all falling down very similarly together. And so I think of of all the nuclear stocks we're talking about, this sector really tends to trade very much together. Um even though one might have a catalyst, it seems to move the other stocks as well. We kind of talked about that early on. And so let's look at those catalyst. Are there any potential catalysts for any of these three names that might uh help lift this whole sector uh from this lows that we're at right now? So each one has different kinds of catalysts going on um that that is kind of like bringing the entire sector up. You know you have Oakllo where they recently got preliminary safety approval from the department of energy. You have SMR where they recently started um working with Paragon to advance the safety systems within their reactor module. So they've advanced far enough with the design of their reactor that they've gotten into the part where safety is a big concern and they're working with um Paragon for that. And then you have Nanuclear and they recently picked up um STS which is a transport company that has the certifications to transport uranium around the country. So now you have them not only producing small module reactors, but you also have them trucking the uranium that all of the other small module reactors are going to need around the country. And all three of those catalysts are kind of evolving at the same time, which is why these three stocks are kind of trading in lock step and moving up slowly and testing like their their upward momentum against the short theory on all of these stocks. Yeah, NE in particular had a really strong week. Uh quite a bit of growth over just the last 5 days up almost 20%. And I think that transport deal you talked about is is a part of that because simply the stock is growing an area that's already profitable. While the small modular reactor timeline might be closer to 2030, that is an area of the business that can actually, you know, bring in revenue right now. >> So they have the transport logistics of the uranium and they've already acquired a company to be able to do that. So that should already that should start making them revenue right away. So the second catalyst that they also have that's helping this stock is that they got their construction permit approved for their Kronos reactor which is going to be their initial test reactor. It's going to be a 12 megawatt reactor located the University of Illinois. >> Yeah, it's a good catalyst for this company. Uh I've heard from investors over the last week or so asking about these stocks because of how low they had gotten down to. And one thing somebody said about I believe it was SMR was talking about some of these contracts that these three companies are fighting for aren't just a US story. They're also working to spread that technology around the globe. >> Yeah, that's correct. So um SMR currently works with Japan and um a couple of other countries, but they're in talks with like four or five different countries, you know, Sweden and several others. Same thing with um Oaklo. They're working with uh South Korea and a couple of other countries overseas to push this SMR theory forward. I think that each country that has nuclear reactors has their own kind of um expertise in general. And so these collaboration contracts that they're working out create a situation where for instance um a a developer in Sweden can start building the same modular reactor footprint that New Scale is building here in America. a lot of its licensing agreements and a lot of its IP sharing agreements at this point, but it won't be too much longer and we'll start shipping parts and and other nuclear specific items overseas and that's when you're going to see of course a another jump in pricing because once this technology becomes available to our allies overseas, they will obviously want to start up taking it as well. >> Yeah. All it takes is a headline to say a major international contract, a huge catalyst for a small sector like this. And I can see all of these stocks moving on news like that. So, the catalyst could be coming down the road. And right now, looking at these stock charts, they're still very close to that bottom that all three of them have reached. So, Jeffrey, that's a good conversation on small nuclear reactors. Let's move on to this bonus round. It's one of your favorite plays in the nuclear energy story right now and it's also on a little bit of a downtrend. What is this stock in this sector that you're looking at? >> In the sector within the sector, I think that this is a stock that you can buy and it doesn't matter who wins within the sector. This stock will reap the benefits. And the stock that I'm talking about is BWX Technologies. Their ticker symbol is BWXT. They're kind of uh just like a lot of these other players and they have multiple revenue sources. These guys produce all of the reactors for the United States military. So every submarine, every um aircraft carrier has a reactor from this company inside of it. And these are small modular reactors already that are running, you know, full tilt to support our military. At the same time, all of the little pieces that they use to build their small module reactors are up for sale. So, they're kind of the and and I've called them this before, they're the Home Depot of the nuclear industry. So, when um all of these other companies need containment items, need valves, need whatever they need to build their reactors, to build storage containment, to build different items that will help their business along, they go to BWX in order to get the parts and the pieces that they need to build these things out. And this is a US-based company that has the potential to expand their footprint once they fully start pushing things out overseas as well. >> Yeah. And looking at this chart, this is one that it's starting to see a little bit of a surge and and heading back uh towards the higher end of its chart. Uh it's not quite there yet. There's still room to go. It's definitely still on the low, but you'd be catching it on a little bit of a recovery. Let's talk about how much higher this stock could climb, especially since it's starting to bounce right now. I think that over the long course it could go very much higher just because right now it's servicing the nuclear fleet as it sits. Right? So there's all of these things that are coming online with new installations through power companies that we've talked about as well as small module reactors coming online and all of that will add to BWX's bottom line as they build these units out. They're going to need the parts and the pieces. But we also need to add to it that the DoD just pushed out their their most recent budget and 1.4 4 billion of that was given to BWX in order to start retrofitting and upgrading the reactors that are currently out there in the fleet. The current price action that you're seeing is price action from that contract. Not much price action from the actual sector itself. There's still so much room to grow once the sector underneath it ignites. >> All right, a really great look at a lot of different names in the nuclear energy sector. Again, a whole sector that's on a bit of a downtrend right now, but is just starting to get some recovery in the story. If you're looking for some other stocks to buy on the dip right now, make sure to watch this video. We detail a list of other stocks that are on a little bit of a downtrend that make it an interesting time to look at buying. You can watch that full interview