3 Nuclear Stocks You’ll Wish You Bought Before the Rebound

It's been a down year for this sector, but the  opportunity is very much still there. Joining   us today is Curran Francis with the Fintech  Channel. Currin, so great to have you back on   the show. I love talking to other YouTubers  on this channel and getting some of your own   perspective on different sectors. And today,  it's all about nuclear. This has been such   an interesting conversation topic the last few  months because plenty of investors were in this   uh sector a lot last year when it was at its highs  and they have been hurting for months as these   stocks just seem to keep going down. So what's  your take on what's happening in nuclear right   now? Nuclear energy is a really interesting area  because a lot of the conversation around nuclear   right now is how all these stocks are dropping.  But if you look at the sector as a whole,   the fundamentals just keep getting better. If you  look at US energy demand over time, there was this   report recently from the International Energy  Association which predicts that US energy demand   is going to effectively double by 2030. And a lot  of that is being driven by these AI data centers.   However, because it takes so long to spin up a  nuclear reactor or to bring more capacity online,   we're not actually seeing a lot of these companies  making additional revenue quite yet. And so   there's this big disconnect between when people  recognize the opportunity and when it actually   affects the companies. And I think a lot of people  just haven't been patient enough to wait for a lot   of these numbers to fall to the bottom line. And  so the fact that these stocks are getting cheaper   right now to me just looks like an opportunity.  Yeah, I think that that is such a great point to   look at is that even though the price action is  going down, the fundamentals are still very much   still there and even growing. What do you think  was behind the highs that we saw? Was that all   just about hype and kind of investor excitement  about the sector? Did they get too far above where   the actual value was? I just like to talk about  why we're seeing the kind of price action we are   and then we'll get into the fundamentals a little  bit more. I think so. I think some of it was these   stocks getting ahead of where they really should  have been. We saw some really big contracts being   signed kind of at the end of 2024. Meta signed a  multi-billion dollar contract for power for their   AI data centers. Microsoft was signing some big  contracts as well. Amazon's getting big into the   space. And so, kind of like a lot of things in the  AI space, money tends to just flow wherever the   current attention is facing, but a lot of times it  flows before the actual numbers show up. And so,   I really think that kind of the general publicity  around it got these stocks ahead of where they   really should have been, but you know, in a  10 to 15 year time horizon, I think that it's   probably not going to matter too much. Yeah, that  time horizon is the most important piece. And by   the way, I forgot to mention, you are going  to share three of your favorite stocks in the   nuclear sector. So, we're going to get into that  list in a minute. But this broader discussion,   I think, is important about the sector as a whole  because many people are already holding some of   these stocks in their portfolio and wondering what  to do. That time horizon is absolutely one of the   biggest talking points I keep hearing about is  that the nuclear story isn't going to magically   be ready and fully commercialized, you know, by  the end of the year. That the buildout time for   this whole sector is still a ways off. this  is more of a long to midterm uh growth story.   What kind of timeline do you see for the stocks  that we're going to talk about today? Yeah, so   there's kind of different timelines for different  types of nuclear stocks. And I think that this is   kind of one level below what a lot of people are  focusing on in the sector. Yes, if you're building   a general nuclear reactor, the average timeline  to bring one online is somewhere between 6 and 8   years right now. It's actually quite a bit longer  in the US because the Nuclear Regulatory Committee   for a long time has been pretty strict about  the standards on nuclear power. And anytime we   see a disaster like we saw in Japan back in the  2000s, they just add more restrictions on top and   make it harder and harder to build nuclear,  which is good. We want nuclear to be safe,   but it also slows down those timelines. What we're  seeing now is the Nuclear Regulatory Committee has   actually changed fundamentally what their goal  is. The goal is no longer to simply restrict and   regulate nuclear power. It is also to facilitate  bringing more nuclear power online. And so that   should start to accelerate these timelines in the  future. The second thing though that is helping   nuclear timelines is there's new technology coming  on where you no longer have to build sort of a   power plant scale nuclear reactor. They have new  technology called small modular reactors, which   a lot of data centers are interested in, where  you're basically building a mini nuclear reactor   that still produces power, but you're not looking  at, you know, gigawatts of energy. You might only   be producing megawatts of energy. So, you're not  powering a whole city. You're just powering one   data center. Yes, those are the ones that were  the darlings of the the stock market. uh late   last year we saw SMR and Oaklo really skyrocket  in their price and now they've just continued to   go down. Those two names in the small modular  reactor sector has maybe been hit the hardest   of this downturn in the market uh in 2026. What is  your take on why we're seeing that sudden pullback   in these names and not really recapturing some  of the growth those investors saw when they got   into those names and also talk a little bit more  about that timeline for small modular reactors. Is   it shorter than some of these big nuclear plants  or is it also longer because the technology just   isn't there yet? One of the reasons those stocks  dropped more than others, I think, is they were   just smaller. Smaller companies in general  tend to be more volatile. They trade up very   quickly and they drop very quickly. You know, it  takes a lot more money to move a trillion dollar   stock than a $5 billion stock. And so, yeah, for  anybody who's investing in that space, expect way   more volatility from an SMR company than a company  that has established nuclear plants running today.   But in terms of timelines, we're actually seeing  nuclear reactors, some coming online as soon as   2027 for some of the SMRs though, we're actually  seeing a lot of it focused in the early 2030s. So,   2032, 2035, that kind of timeline. So, you really  are looking at around a 10-year timeline before we   really start to see the growth in this area play  out. But the issue is if you wait 10 years to   invest, at that point, it's obvious to everybody.  And so, the stocks are already bid up. And so,   I think that's why we saw that big runup last  year, people just got overly excited. And now   that the excitement has kind of died down, this  is when I get more interested in the space. Yeah,   I think that timeline is also interesting with the  the massive need and demand for energy right now.   you look at all the hyperscalers and the growth of  AI that energy is needed right now. And so another   concern that I've heard starting to pop up is  that these hyperscalers are going to start to   look elsewhere because the timeline for nuclear is  just too long. Do you think there's any truth to   that story or can there be multiple winners in the  energy story simply because there's so much demand   right now? Yeah, I think that's clearly correct. I  mean, we've seen coal fired power plants that were   supposed to get shut down that got brought back  online just because these companies needed energy   so badly. We've seen uh nuclear energy companies  acquiring natural gas companies to kind of fill   that stop gap in the meantime. So, yes, absolutely  these companies are going to take energy from   wherever they can get it. But there's this really  great quote from Amazon's global energy strategy   team when they were talking to their CEO and they  basically laid out exactly what their plan is with   energy. In the short term, they're going to use  whatever energy is available. But the quote is,   "We have strong conviction that nuclear power is  the most economical and credible path to scale   carbon-f free energy to meet the next decade's  rapid capacity growth." So eventually they want   to move to nuclear power, but in the meantime  they're going to stop gap it with whatever they   have. Just because they use coal fired power  plants today doesn't mean they're not going to   switch to nuclear in 10 years when it's available.  Yeah, I think that means we're going to see a lot   of different energy related stocks, even battery  stocks, different kinds of things that are helping   to supply power. Seeing some really big spikes  in the near term while they're trying to fill   that gap before nuclear is built out. I know  I just heard about a new energy source from a   guest that was recently on our show. He says  this is one of the biggest discoveries of an   energy source in US history. Google just signed a  15-year contract, and Microsoft's Bill Gates just   wrote a $100 million check investing in this new  energy source. You can scan the QR code to learn   more about this company and this stock that right  now is small, but could be very massive in short   order. It's also important to note you want  to check out this report before August 18th.   There's a major catalyst coming that could likely  eat away at some of the biggest early gains for   investors. So again, check out that special offer  now and dive into that other energy source. All   right, Karan, let's get to your list now of  the three nuclear energy companies that you   are most interested in right now. What's the  first name on your list? So the first name in   my list plays in the large nuclear reactor  category and it's Constellation Energy. So,   this is actually the company I referenced earlier  that actually acquired one of the nation's largest   natural gas power plant companies to try to fill  the stop gap. And the reason they're doing this   is they have multi-billion dollar contracts signed  today with both Meta and Microsoft and a potential   contract with Amazon on the horizon to start using  their clean energy. They're already the biggest   clean energy provider in the US and they have  several nuclear projects underway. Plus, the stock   price is actually down quite a bit over the past  year. So they're sitting at a PE ratio of only   around 22. They look like a pretty good value.  They have really good growth in front of them and   the technology makes sense as sort of a forward  strategy to pursue. So they really tick all the   boxes that I'm interested in. Yeah, this is one  of those key players in the nuclear story. I know   that big Microsoft investment early last year had  many people really excited about this company,   but like you said, the stock price is down and for  those of our viewers who watch all of our videos,   this is a name that continues to pop up as a buy  the dip opportunity in nuclear and it just keeps   dipping. Um, I have a watch list that follows some  of the stocks we talk about on this channel. Uh,   it's Bridget's buys watch list and I added this  to my watch list on May 5th. uh when it was down,   we had somebody on who was saying this is a  really good value to buy this company. It's   on a downtrend. And since then, again, just the  beginning of May, it's down 20% since then. And   so, it's still on this downtrend. And I think  that the fear that some investors might have is   where is the bottom here? When are we going to see  this sector turn around? And I know that's a big   question, but what are your thoughts on that? I  think one of the issues is just expectations from   investors. A lot of people investing in these  nuclear stocks are kind of coming over from the   AI sector which for a long time was highly  softwaredriven. And the way software stocks   tend to move is we figure out you know what is the  next area to grow and then the price very quickly   reaches all the value there because software is  very very cheap. Nuclear energy is much more like   an oil and gas company. So you have all this money  from the AI companies flowing into the space,   but it's basically just turning into capital  expenditures from Constellation Energy. They're   just building a bunch of power plants. That isn't  going to improve their profitability for a very,   very long time. But the thing is, no matter how  low the stock price drops, those physical plants   still exist. They don't need to, you know, issue  more shares in order to raise money to build. And   so it's just a very different business model. And  if you're mainly used to investing in tech stocks,   which to be fair is what I focus on a lot, I think  your expectations can be a little bit skewed here.   The stock could absolutely drop another 20% in the  next 2 months. But if you're holding for 10 years,   that shouldn't really matter. All that matters  is where it is going in the long term and are   the fundamentals actually improving. For  me personally, there are some risks in this   company. I mean, one big risk are the timelines.  Traditionally, it should take 6 to 8 years to   build a nuclear reactor, but in the US, that  timeline has been a lot longer in the past.   There was one reactor that we started building  in 1972 and I think it got completed in like 2012   or something like that. Like that's clearly  too long of a timeline, right? So, ideally,   we want to find something that has a reasonable  timeline that could actually have a return. And   then the other big risk here is just execution  risk. Because you have to hold this stock for such   a long time to actually see a reasonable return.  There's a lot of time for someone to come in and   mess things up. It's just kind of how it works for  any super long-term hold. Yeah, that is absolutely   a possibility with this company. Like you said,  that the timeline of building out this massive   nuclear project is a concern. I think it's good  to point out that Constellation is still making   money. And I I know that you kind of said that in  our earlier discussion about a big nuclear company   versus these really small companies. And that's  it. It's stable. It's already providing energy   which is in huge demand right now. And so you look  at their earnings and they're doing just great on   earnings. So they're making this huge investment  into building out this nuclear project, but they   also have the income coming in to support what  they're building out. Does that make this company   um a a less risky long-term investment for you?  looking at the fundamentals of what they already   have coming in as for profitability and what that  could mean 10 years down the road once this plant   that they're investing in is actually open. Yeah,  absolutely. I mean, even before the nuclear story,   this is just a classic Warren Buffett old school  investor style stock, right? It brings in a ton of   income. Then on top of that, the fact that they  are getting more valuable by investing capital   expenditures into building up all these plants  makes me much more comfortable as the price is   swinging currently. even to dividend players.  So again, one of those boring Buffett stocks,   but sometimes it's great to have not only some  of those in your portfolio, but a stock like this   where it's that boring stock that's steady, but  also has a growth story attached to it. So I think   this is a great first pick, Grin. Let's move on  to the second company that you're talking about.   And this one is definitely less of the giant  company that many people will know. Yeah. So   my next pick is going to be far on the other side  of the risk spectrum. This one is highly volatile,   highly risky, but it could offer more short-term  potential. So, the company is Centrist Energy,   ticker symbol L EU, and they're one of  these companies focused in the SMR space,   the small modular reactors. And their whole  business is basically betting that these small   modular reactors are going to get off the ground  and are going to act as sort of that not immediate   stop gap, but sort of middle-term stop gap while  they're still building these massive nuclear   centers. and they specifically focus on the supply  chain before you actually build the reactor. So,   we were talking before about companies like Ollo,  which saw a huge run up in price. This is one of   the companies that would actually be a bottleneck  for a company like Ollo because they actually   focus on the fuel that these reactors use. So,  interesting. In all the the nuclear stories we've   done, I don't think this has made a listical video  on our channel before in the last 2 years. So,   I'm glad that you were bringing it up and you  can look at the stock chart. It very much follows   along with how SMR and Ollo were doing uh back in  October, November timeline of last year. So they   look similar. It's clearly in the same industry.  Let's talk about that bottleneck and exactly what   they provide that gives them maybe a little bit of  a moat moving forward. Are there other companies   that are doing something similar to what Centress  is doing and offering for these SMR companies?   Yeah. So what Centress does is they focus on uh  high assay lowenriched uranium which is H A L EU.   It's where the ticker symbol comes from. And it's  basically a type of nuclear fuel which is supposed   to use lower level enriched uranium. So there's  a little bit less regulation around it. And it's   really what's focused on for these small modular  reactors. It's the type of fuel that they're going   to rely on. And what's interesting is they are  the only US-based company that currently produces   this type of fuel. All the other companies  are international. And so when it comes to   nuclear power, moving nuclear materials between  countries isn't really the easiest thing to do.   It's not something that's generally favored by  uh administrations. And so as we see the Nuclear   Regulatory Committee start to focus on how they  can push the US industry forward, this is the type   of company that could benefit from what they're  doing. And so they have a pseudo mini monopoly on   the space for now. It's not to say someone else  couldn't come along and start a company as well,   but they certainly have a head start. They  absolutely have a head start. But then I wonder,   is it a waiting game? Is this company just  waiting for uh those larger SMR type companies   to actually take off and get their products to  commercialization? Can this company do anything to   move the needle until those companies are ready to  go? Yeah, I mean, we're actually starting to see   this company see real revenue come in. In fact,  this latest quarter, they saw 18% year-over-year   growth in revenue. They're forecasting to  grow even faster in their next quarter,   which is releasing earnings next month. So, it  seems like we're kind of at the point now where   they are starting to see orders come in and they  are actually starting to see real revenue. And so,   that's kind of the type of small company I like  to focus on. I'm not as interested in pure story   plays. I like to see a company where the numbers  are already trending in the right direction. And   that's what we're starting to see right here,  which makes me very excited. So, not just a good   idea, but something that's actually already  proving it's starting to work. And, uh, this   is a great example of that. I want to get your  take really quick before we move on to the last   name on your list of if you pay attention to what  analysts have to say at all. Because when you look   at this stock, there are some really great price  targets coming in from analyst. Most recent one,   a $215 price target and that just came in a couple  of days ago. We do have a downgrade here from 314   down to 264. But either way you look at it, a  $264 price target is still huge upside for any   investor who would be looking to get in on this  stock right now. And I think what's interesting   to me is we've continued to see this downtrend in  nuclear to the point where many retail investors   are skeptical about actually getting into this  sector because it's on such a downtrend, but   analysts are still bullish. What does that mean to  you? So, first off, I usually don't put a ton of   stock into analysts. If you look at any study of,  you know, how analyst expectations perform versus   the market, they don't outperform. You know,  it's basically just random. That being said,   I do think that there is something to be said with  how anti- retail investors are on this space right   now. And it's because I think there's a disconnect  between where the numbers are moving and where   sentiment is moving. It's kind of like a broader  story in nuclear in general. Like for a long time,   we knew nuclear energy was one of the safest  forms of energy. It actually has fewer deaths   per gigawatt than coal, fewer than wind, fewer  than natural gas. The only form of energy that   is safer is solar power. but we didn't build it  because there was this general fear of nuclear   energy. So there was a disconnect between the  actual numbers and how people feel. And I think   we're kind of seeing that with the stocks now as  well. Only the fear now is that the stocks are   dropping and so people are like, "Well, I'd better  sell out of this while the actual fundamentals are   improving." So it's just a bet against general  sentiment, which is a bet that I'm very happy   to take. Right. And so often those bets against  sentiment absolutely pay off for retail investors.   It's so common for people to wait and follow  headlines. And once all the news and the headlines   and the hype is out on a certain stock or sector,  that's when retail is finally interested. But   right now, when no one is talking about it,  or if they only have negative things to say,   that's the most interesting time to start looking  at stocks. And that's why I shared that special   report earlier, and I want to bring it up again.  If you want to get into a stock in energy that is   not making headlines yet, but is about to with  a major announcement coming on in mid August,   this is the kind of stock you want to be looking  at right now again before it starts to make the   headlines and sees that huge runup that will eat  away at some of those profits for early investors.   So scan that QR code or click the link in the  description to get that special report and learn   more about this stock in a completely different  area of energy that has [clears throat] explosive   growth potential. Again, check that offer in the  link. But Kieran, before we move on to the last   stock on your nuclear energy list, I want to talk  a little bit more about the realities of these   moonshot stocks in the nuclear sector. And really,  I think most of these SMR type stocks kind of fall   into this. Before we move on to your last name,  can we talk a little bit about the risks that come   with this name? Yeah, absolutely. I do think one  thing that's interesting with the analyst targets   is they're setting these targets at, you know,  double the current stock price. And with a company   like this, I think that makes sense because the  stock price is probably either going to have a   huge run up in price or it's going to go to zero.  That's the risk here, right? You're not probably   going to get a nice 20% return in this stock.  It's either going to perform very well or it's   going to lose a lot of money. So, personally, this  would not be sort of a core holding for me, but I   think it is worth looking at some of these smaller  stocks because they do hold a lot of potential to   rise relatively quickly. Yes, it's either going  to go way up or go way down. And that is so true   with these high risk names. It's high risk, high  reward, but that risk is also there. So, thank you   for pointing that out for this one. I also want to  add this name to my Virgin Spy watch list because   I think it's a great one to follow over time to  see how it does. I think I have SMR on my watch   list and it's one of the worst performing stocks  right now. So, I'm really curious to see how this   stock and others in the nuclear sector are going  to look this time next year. So, we'll have to   do another follow-up video then. Well, let's  move on to the last stock that you have for us   today because I know this is one of your favorite  ways to invest in a sector like this. Sure. So,   the third stock is going to be probably the most  boring pick, but it's the pick that I think most   people interested in the space probably would  do the best with, and it's an ETF of the space,   the VANC Uranium and Nuclear ETF, ticker symbol  NLR. Now, this isn't my favorite ETF in the world.   The expense ratio is pretty high, but there  just aren't a ton of good ETFs in the nuclear   space right now, but there are some things I like  about this. The big thing is in the nuclear space,   it's hard to tell who the winners are because  like we've talked about, a lot of the numbers   aren't yet showing up for these big players. And  so investing in this ETF kind of gives you a broad   exposure to the nuclear industry both in the US  and internationally. And we are seeing general   trends that seem to be supporting nuclear power.  Yes, there's the AI buildout. Yes, there's growing   energy demand. But there's also just shifting  regulation with the Nuclear Regulatory Committee   becoming much more friendly to investment into  the space and the US government even subsidizing a   lot of the investment that's going here. And so if  you're a, you know, 15-year buy and hold investor,   you probably don't want to worry about picking a  stock that might have execution risk or their CEO   might leave or they might have a nuclear disaster  which would completely destroy the company.   Instead, you can just invest broadly into the  market with an ETF like this. Yeah, I know you   have several ETFs on your portfolio. If you ever  watch the fintech channel, I highly suggest it.   He covers stocks so well and really talks about  the fundamentals. I know your most recent video,   you talked about some ETFs, too. So, if you  haven't checked out Kieran's channel yet,   make sure to do that. You can find that on the  collab link here. But, I like that you throw   in a mix of both stocks and ETFs. And I want you  to explain a little bit for retail investors why   it's good to own, you know, both solo stocks and  individual stocks along with some ETFs. Yeah. So,   personally, when I invest in stocks, I put 15% of  my income purely into broad market ETFs that just   track the market in general. And the reason  I do that is it lowers my overall risk. Like,   I can leave that money there for 20 years and  not worry about it. then I can try to take bigger   bets with the rest of my money and I'm not as  emotionally influenced by what the market is doing   because I know I have that stable baseline. I  think it just makes me a better investor. When it   comes to specific sector ETFs, one of the benefits  is it takes out the risk of any one company doing   something bad. You know, if you were invested  in car companies for the last h 100red years,   car companies in general have not actually seen  huge increases in their stock prices since the   1920s. It was actually a very bad area to invest.  But if you had invested in just Tesla, you would   have done really well. Or if you had invested in  General Motors, you would have lost all your money   like twice. So you can pull out some of the risk  by just spreading your money across an ETF, which   will just give you broad exposure to an entire  industry. I think it's a really great example and   I think nuclear is a great place to be looking  at that because of exactly what you just said   that risk of one company having a catastrophic  incident and crashing their stock price. So I   think it's a great argument here to look at an ETF  in nuclear. I do want to point out it lowers your   risk but that doesn't mean there's not going to  be volatility. If you look at the chart for NLR,   it is just as volatile as the rest of the nuclear  sector. This one's down over 25% in the last 3   months. And you can see there's been just as  much volatility in this ETF as with some of   these other nuclear names that we've talked about  and that I've talked about with other analysts on   this show before, too. So, let's talk about that  that volatility risk even in an ETF like this. So,   ETFs in general are very volatile and the more  niche your ETF is, the more volatile it is. This   ETF in particular, it's not my favorite because  it is so small. Their net assets is only around   $4 billion. And so, you know, one big investor  moving into this, someone like, you know,   a Warren Buffett or a Bill Aman would completely  change the stock price, right? It's a fairly   volatile ETF and it is fairly concentrated. The  other big risk that I would point out here is if   you look at the biggest holdings in this ETF, the  biggest holding is actually Constellation Energy.   It's around 9% of their assets and around 5% of  their assets are in Centress Energy. So, if you're   going to invest in this ETF, I personally would  not also be investing in the specific nuclear   stocks because it's doubling up your exposure and  it can make it even more exposed to, you know,   something happening with one of these companies.  I would probably pick either the ETF or pick one   of the companies you're interested in. Always  such good advice. Thank you so much for coming   on the show today and sharing your take on  what is happening in the nuclear sector. I   want to hear from investors on what you think  about nuclear. Are you adding to your position   right now? Are you staying away until you  start to see a turnaround in the chart and   the price action? Let me know your thoughts  in the comments. And if you want to look at   a broader list of other nuclear stocks in this  sector, make sure to watch this video. There's   a list of nine nuclear stocks from mining and  uranium to other small modular reactors as   well. That is all in this video with our Jeffrey  Neil Johnson. You can watch that full interview