Nuke stocks up as Venezuela intervention boosts political uncertainty

Shares tied to nuclear fuel and experimental forms of nuclear energy surged Monday, with a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty in the wake of President Trump’s intervention in Venezuela and new Department of Energy funding likely driving the gains.

NuScale, Oklo and Nano Nuclear — all makers of unproven, not yet fully approved smaller nuclear reactors (SMRs) that the industry is pushing as the next generation of atomic power — jumped double digits.

Nuclear fuel companies like Lightbridge, Critical Metals, Centrus Energy and Energy Fuels also posted solid gains after the Department of Energy detailed the recipients of $2.7 billion in funding over the next decade to boost domestic capacity for enriched uranium.

Centrus is to receive $900 million of the funds, according to Bloomberg. But with little other company-specific news on the stocks in question, it’s tough to conclusively explain the move in prices of nuclear power assets, though Trump’s intervention in Venezuela is likely playing some role as well.

The imprisonment of Maduro could disrupt the deal the US has struck with China — a key Venezuelan ally — on access to rare earth metals, including uranium, making supplies tighter and prices higher. Prices of some rare earths in China, including lithium, rose sharply on Monday.

Rising prices or tightening supplies of nuclear fuel could boost the potential value of new, more efficient forms of nuclear power, such as SMRs, and nuclear fuel suppliers like Centrus. It may also increase the chances that the US takes further direct stakes in American producers of sensitive metals, like Energy Fuels, a Colorado-based miner of uranium and other metals, as it did over the summer.

All of this comes against the backdrop of growing electricity demand related to AI, which was already expected to boost uranium prices and nuclear power usage in the coming years.