NuScale, Oklo, Centrus drop 5-6% as rate fears hit nuclear stocks

Nuclear shares slid across the board Thursday, with NuScale Power down 5% to $8.80 and Oklo down 5% to $40.87, as interest-rate anxiety hit pre-revenue reactor developers that burn cash years before generating meaningful sales.

"We hold the only U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certification in the SMR industry," NuScale Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins said. "No one is better positioned to deliver carbon-free, 24/7 power on the shortest possible timeline."

Centrus Energy sank 6% to $172.68, and the Global X Uranium ETF fell 3% to $43.62, confirming the pullback extends beyond individual developers. NuScale reported just $75,000 of second-quarter revenue, down 99.1% from $8.05 million a year earlier, while Oklo posted $1.2 million of revenue and a $48.5 million net loss. Centrus, which already generates revenue from nuclear fuel and enrichment, reported $176.1 million of Q2 revenue, up 14% year over year.

The selloff comes as the 30-year Treasury printed a 19-year high at 5.31%, a direct blow to capital-intensive, long-duration nuclear projects. Higher discount rates reduce the net present value of reactors that won't reach commercial operation until the early 2030s, making investors demand more from the advanced-nuclear story.

Rate Anxiety Compounds a Revenue-Reality Split

The market is increasingly separating nuclear names that earn revenue today from those promising reactors next decade. NuScale stock is down 35% year to date and Oklo is down 39%, while BWX Technologies sits roughly flat and Fluor is up 38%. Fluor, NuScale's former EPC partner and largest shareholder, completed monetization of its stake in April while keeping the contracting relationship — a distinction between confidence in the technology and willingness to hold the equity.

NuScale ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash and investments, a $900 million jump from the first quarter, funded largely by $984.5 million in net equity proceeds during the first half. Class A share count rose from 318.5 million at year-end 2025 to 410.4 million by June 30, and the company filed on Aug. 11 to sell an additional $750 million through an at-the-market offering. SMR stock trades at roughly 14 times projected 2028 sales, and insiders were net sellers over the past 12 months.

AI Capex Doubts Add to the Pressure

The nuclear pullback also tracks fresh doubts about the durability of AI infrastructure spending, which has driven much of the sector's demand thesis. Anthropic told investors its annualized revenue run rate reached $65 billion at the end of July, below the roughly $80 billion figure circulating in Silicon Valley, raising questions about whether hyperscaler power purchase agreements will hold. Long-term power deals are exactly the kind of forward liability that becomes harder to justify when financing costs rise.

Oklo faces many of the same timing concerns as NuScale, even though its reactor technology differs. The company generated its first meaningful quarterly revenue of $1.2 million but still needs to convert project development, licensing and customer commitments into recurring power revenue. Centrus offers a different setup, with a multibillion-dollar backlog and recent enrichment agreements, including a HALEU deal with Oklo, yet LEU stock can still fall when investors reduce exposure to the broader nuclear theme. Uranium miners such as Uranium Energy Corp. have held up better than advanced-reactor developers because they benefit from tighter nuclear-fuel markets even when financing costs rise.

The long-term nuclear case remains tied to rising electricity demand from AI data centers, constrained grids and the need for reliable low-carbon generation. But the combination of financing requirements, execution risk and interest-rate sensitivity makes the near-term setup difficult. Investors who remain bullish on nuclear may want to keep SMR, OKLO, LEU or URA positions moderate rather than assuming Thursday's selloff marks a durable bottom, and watch for whether new front-end engineering work fills the gap left by NuScale's completed RoPower project.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.