By Avi Salzman and Mackenzie Tatananni

Nuclear energy stocks soared Friday after President Donald Trump signed executive orders attempting to speed up permitting for reactors and expand domestic enriched uranium production.

Shares of Centrus Energy, Lightbridge, and NuScale Power jumped 22%, 43%, and 18%, respectively. Shares of nuclear start-up Oklo were also on the rise, surging 24%. Former Oklo board member Chris Wright now leads the U.S. Department of Energy.

The administration says the executive orders will kickstart the construction of new reactors in the U.S. by easing the permitting process, and looking to deploy reactors at military sites and for AI data centers. Small reactors could be built on military bases, said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the signing. It will also create a pilot program to try to deploy three experimental reactors by next July 4. And it directs the Department of Energy to make nuclear fuel available to the industry, which largely relies on foreign fuel providers like Russia.

Seth Grae, CEO of nuclear fuel company Lightbridge, said in an interview after the signing that the ability to build reactors on military bases could be a plus. If the federal government is the customer, the process of building a reactor would likely be faster.

"I think that that really can help with timelines because of regulation, " he said. "And I think that with the military as a customer, they could expedite orders."

Other than that, however, it's not clear whether the executive orders will change much for the nuclear industry. The text of the orders was not immediately available from the White House.

Nuclear energy has been stagnant for most of the past two decades, accounting for a steadily diminishing amount of American electricity generation. Several startups like Oklo and Nuscale are aiming to build smaller reactors that they say will be cheaper and more efficient than the large light-water reactors that dominate the industry today.

However, none have been built in the U.S. yet. Oklo's design has not been licensed, and Nuscale has been dogged by a previous project's failure.

Also, some of the issues that Trump discussed at the bill-signing have already been addressed -- President Biden signed a broad-ranging law last year called the ADVANCE Act designed to speed up the permitting process at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for new reactors and make it cheaper for companies to apply for permits.

The U.S. has 94 large-scale nuclear reactors, but no new ones are under construction today. The last two new reactors, which were built in Georgia, went more than $15 billion over their original budget and were finished years late.

Trump said at the signing that he's confident those problems won't be repeated.

"You've read a lot about cost overruns in a couple of states that were pretty significant, but we're not going to have cost overruns," he said.

Nuclear power has also been facing other headwinds. The GOP tax and spending bill could cut a crucial government subsidy that's supported past nuclear projects, including the Georgia one. The bill may end up eliminating funding for the Loan Programs Office, which offers low-cost loans to energy projects.

Still, nuclear investors were looking on the bright side on Friday. Several stocks with connections to the industry were climbing. Constellation Energy, which owns more reactors in the U.S. than any other company, was up 3%. Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez said at the bill signing that he believes the executive orders could speed things up because "we're wasting too much time on permitting." Vistra, which also owns reactors, was up 2.3%. GE Vernova, which builds reactors as part of a joint venture, was up 2.2%.

Evercore ISI analysts said Friday that the orders should serve as a vote of confidence that the Energy Department will quickly deploy $3.4 billion that was set aside last year to support the build-out of the nuclear supply chain.

The analysts dubbed Centrus, in particular, a "must-own" within the nuclear fuel industry, "given its strong utility and nuclear generator relationships, and its ability to leverage time-tested centrifugal enrichment technology." The firm initiated coverage on Centrus last week with an Outperform rating and $145 price target.

As for Oklo, Wedbush analysts in a research note Friday reiterated an Outperform rating on the stock and boosted their price target to $55 from $45, representing potential 17% upside to the current price.

"While the market remains competitive and currently represents an arms race in terms of the approval process and timelines to get power to the ground, we do believe OKLO is a step ahead of the competition," the analysts wrote.

Oklo plans to deploy its first nuclear power plant at Idaho National Laboratory by the end of 2027. The company sells power directly to customers rather than the reactors themselves, "which we believe positions the company in a solid spot to provide long term recurring revenues while reducing many pain points within typical nuclear projects, " the analysts wrote.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

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May 23, 2025 15:50 ET (19:50 GMT)

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