Nuclear Market Overview

This is a guest post that I originally made for BowTied Bull and inspired the launch of this Substack.

This article will give an overview of companies in the nuclear space. This will include both publicly-traded pure play companies (NuScale, Oklo), related conglomerates (GE Vernova), legacy names (Cameco), and private names (TerraPower, Commonwealth Fusion). The intent behind the private names is that this is where a lot of capital raising is happening. Some of you have gotten rich, so being an accredited investor isn’t an issue.

I could do an entire separate article on my thoughts on private capital markets vs. publicly traded markets, but that would be another piece for another time.

The intent behind this article is not to be a sales pitch for nuclear. This is meant to be purely informational and is not investment advice. I have no idea who is reading this, so I cannot make any statement on suitability for your financial situation. Nuclear companies have risks like any investments. This article will outline those risks, along with the opportunities.

• History and future of nuclear power—Gen 1 to Gen 4 and fusion

• Big picture opportunities and risks to nuclear

• Nuclear fuel and related companies

• Legacy reactor companies

• Pure-play next generation reactor companies

• Reactor operators (power companies)

• Medical isotopes

• Summary

This article will not, however, be a comprehensive overview of the US power grid, power trading, and comparison of levelized cost of energy (LCOE) across fuel types, as that would merit whole separate articles of their own. This article will not get too into the weeds on the technical side just for the sake of brevity. This is meant to give the reader a primer on the nuclear market from which the reader can then make additional informed research on their own.

Commercial nuclear power began in the 1950s after government-backed nuclear research during and after World War 2. Nuclear power works similar to any thermal generation, except instead of burning coal to heat water for a steam turbine Rankine cycle, nuclear power uses a fission reaction to heat water. A company could, theoretically, also use fusion power. This is still experimental, and some companies are attempting to commercialize fusion, but as of now (Dec 2025) all reactors in commercial operation are fission reactors and will likely be the case for the next several years, if for no other reason than no fusion design has passed Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval yet.