For decades, nuclear energy was cast as a villain in the energy world – a technology associated with disaster risks and political backlash. Yet today, policymakers globally are having a change of heart. Nuclear is being considered as both a source of clean power and a strategic lifeline for countries without significant natural resources.
While there is irony in this, there are also high stakes. The world is advancing at a rapid pace and global economies will soon demand more power than ever before. AI-driven applications, power-hungry data centres, and Big Tech’s pledges to “24/7 clean power” are forcing governments to confront a tough truth: clean energy must be reliable, abundant and independent.
Nuclear delivers that. Unlike solar or wind, nuclear reactors produce steady baseload power – day and night, and regardless of weather or season. Unlike hydropower or geothermal, nuclear will also not displace communities or forcibly change the natural environment.
Adding to the momentum, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced during his Budget 2025 speech that Singapore will study the potential deployment of nuclear power and build up capabilities to evaluate the technology.
With nuclear energy firmly back on the table, investment opportunities are emerging across the entire value chain. These range from reactor operations and uranium suppliers to component manufacturers, engineering firms and the broader ecosystem supporting nuclear infrastructure.
With that in mind, here are 5 nuclear energy stocks in the US that you can put on your watchlist, and look at how each company actually earns revenue within the nuclear energy value chain.
#1 Constellation Energy (NASDAQ: CEG)
Constellation is essentially a pure-play on US nuclear operations. It runs the largest nuclear fleet in the country, with 21 reactors producing carbon-free power across multiple grid regions.
Its scale matters: the company has decades of operating know-how, can spread fixed costs across a big base, and sells power into wholesale markets where tight supply and rising demand have improved pricing.
The company has also struck some big deals, such as signing a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with tech giant Microsoft that will see Constellation restart the Three-Mile nuclear reactor.
In terms of how it makes money, Constellation is primarily a merchant generator. It earns by selling electricity at market prices into wholesale markets (i.e. utilities), and by hedging production to lock in margins.
#2 Southern Company (NYSE: SO)
If you want to go down the “regulated entity” route in nuclear, then Southern is probably near the top of the list. It owns Plant Vogtle in Georgia, now home to the first new US reactors to enter service in decades.
With Unit 3 in commercial operation since July 2023 and Unit 4 since April 2024, Vogtle is now the largest nuclear plant in the US, at nearly 5 GW of capacity across four units.
In terms of its business, Southern is a regulated utility. Instead of selling at volatile wholesale prices, it earns a regulator-approved return on its rate base (the assets needed to provide service).
That return on equity (ROE) is set by state utility commissions and applied to invested capital, with many operating costs passed through to customers. The model is steadier (i.e. more predictable) than merchant generation and is designed to attract capital for large, long-lived assets like nuclear plants.
#3 Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK)
Duke operates the largest regulated nuclear fleet in the US across the Carolinas and is trying to leverage this nuclear capability even more to its advantage.
Licences for its Oconee plant were renewed to 80 years of operation, and the company’s 2025 resource plan evaluates both small modular reactors (SMRs) and potential large reactor additions later in the next decade.
In terms of its actual business, like Southern, Duke mainly earns a commission-set ROE on its rate base given it’s a utility. New nuclear (or life-extension capex) expands that rate base over time, which can support earnings growth subject to regulatory approval.
Given it operates in the Carolinas, which are fast-growing states in the US, Duke’s plan explicitly keeps nuclear on the table in order to meet rising power demand.
#4 Cameco (NYSE: CCJ)
Cameco is one of the world’s leading uranium producers and sits upstream of the power producers. Beyond mining (Cigar Lake, McArthur River, etc.), it owns conversion assets like Port Hope in Canada that turn uranium into hexafluoride/dioxide for fuel fabrication.
Importantly, Cameco also owns 49% of Westinghouse Electric, one of the industry’s key reactor services and technology businesses, which was acquired alongside Brookfield Renewable in 2023.
With regards to how it makes money, Cameco sells uranium and fuel services under long-term contracts, many with market-linked pricing. Tightening supply, contracting restarts by utilities, and Western security-of-supply priorities have lifted contracting volumes and prices.
Equity earnings from Westinghouse give Cameco exposure to the global service cycle for reactors on top of revenue generated from uranium sales.
#5 BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT)
BWX Technologies is the “picks and shovels” specialist for nuclear hardware and isotopes. It manufactures naval nuclear components and reactors for the US fleet and is also expanding into medical isotopes that are used for targeted radiotherapies.
BWX mainly generates revenue from government and defence contract. On the commercial side, BWX supplies components and services to civilian nuclear customers and is building a radioisotope business that could scale as cancer therapies progress.
With BWX investors don’t take on as much commodity price risk or wholesale power price risk compared to uranium producers (Cameco) or pure-play wholesale power providers (Constellation).
Potential Rewards In Nuclear, But Keep In Mind The Risks
While nuclear energy is “hot” right now, there are some risks to keep in mind. First off, there’s a lot of buzz around what’s called small modular reactors (SMRs) which many observers say will drastically lower the capital expenditure required to build nuclear power capacity.
However, these SMRs haven’t been constructed successfully at scale yet and optimism around them might have become overextended.
Of course, the buzz around SMRs relates to one of the biggest risks facing nuclear – cost overruns. Project-execution risk is everywhere in nuclear from huge cost overruns to lengthy delays on new plants. Added to that is regulatory risk from public-policy makers, where the goalposts on credits or system design can shift.
Despite this, the backdrop for nuclear remains supportive given the demand for energy and the fact that nuclear has got bi-partisan support in the US (from both Republicans and Democrats).
For investors looking at the space, Constellation Energy, Southern Company, Duke Energy, Cameco, and BWX Technologies should be on their watchlist.
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