NuScale Power Stock Falls 7.4% Amid Project Delays and Lack of Firm Contracts

Needham initiated coverage of Standard Nuclear with a Buy rating and an $18 price target, sending shares up 10.8% in Tuesday's trading. Analyst Sean Milligan said the bullish thesis rests on the company's early operating and customer-acquisition advantage as the only merchant TRISO fuel fabricator currently making commercial shipments. He expects Standard Nuclear to replicate its modular production platform at SN-TN and SN-ID, converting a rapidly expanding commercial pipeline into funded backlog and scaling utilization as HALEU availability improves. Near-term proof points include U.S. Energy Department authorization, first qualified production from replicate facilities, and the Richland startup in 2027. Milligan noted that funded backlog rose from $8.2M to $119.3M in roughly five months, with total contract backlog of $576.9M and a qualified pipeline of $696M, adding that continued conversion should support utilization as new capacity comes online.

BWX Technologies Inc shares rose 8% in Tuesday trade after the company announced its BANR microreactor technology was selected for a Transportable Nuclear Power Plant project in Belledune, New Brunswick. Prodigy Clean Energy, Pabineau First Nation and Eel River Bar First Nations chose BWXT's reactor for the Indigenous-led nuclear project, which will feature an up to 50 megawatts electric Prodigy TNPP within the traditional territory of the Pabineau and Eel River Bar First Nations, with targeted in-service operation by the early 2030s. The BWXT Advanced Nuclear Reactor is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor designed to produce 75 megawatts thermal, or 22 MWe, using high-assay low-enriched uranium in a TRISO fuel form. The Government of New Brunswick provided Prodigy and the First Nations with a signed Letter of Intent to offtake the generated electricity, and BWXT Canada and Kinectrics Inc., a BWXT-owned company, will deploy a Canadian workforce to support the project. The two BANR units and other systems for the Belledune TNPP will be principally fabricated at BWXT's facilities in Ontario, and BWXT and Prodigy are working toward a definitive agreement for cooperative project development, engineering, licensing, supply chain integration, financing and deployment of BANR-TNPPs.

The U.S. government plans to lend Vistra about US$4.2b to expand nuclear power output, a move that spotlights utilities tied to nuclear energy as data centers, EVs, and crypto miners drive demand for reliable electricity. The article highlights three nuclear-exposed U.S. utilities as a sample from a broader screen that surfaced 9 more power companies. Entergy, with roughly US$13.4b in revenue and a market value of about US$48b, sees approximately 7 to 12 GW of hyperscale data center potential and 3 to 5 GW of traditional industrial demand in its territory, alongside signed agreements with AWS and Meta supporting roughly 8.5% to 9% annual retail sales growth. Ameren, a US$27.6b holding company, owns the Callaway nuclear facility and is studying more nuclear capacity, with 2.8 gigawatts of signed electric service agreements, 3.4 gigawatts of construction agreements, and a further 4 gigawatts of projects with completed interconnection studies in its Missouri territory. Deep Fission, with a market value of roughly US$305 million, develops small modular nuclear reactors buried about a mile underground for utilities, data centers, heavy industry, and government clients.

NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary HALEU Energy Fuel Inc. have entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement with Radnostix, Inc., formerly International Isotopes Inc., and its subsidiary International Isotopes Fluorine Products, Inc. to acquire strategic U.S. nuclear fuel processing assets, including a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license and related intellectual property and technical materials tied to a previously planned depleted uranium hexafluoride deconversion and fluorine extraction facility in Lea County, New Mexico. Upon completion of the transaction and transfer of the NRC license, NANO Nuclear would own one of ten NRC-licensed fuel cycle facilities in the United States. Under the agreement, consideration at closing is $9.5 million in cash and $4.0 million in NANO common stock, with closing subject to NRC consent to the license transfer, other required approvals and consents including from New Mexico officials, satisfactory site arrangements and other closing conditions, and the parties currently expect closing in approximately 90 to 120 days. The NRC license was originally issued to construct and operate the DUF6 deconversion and fluorine extraction facility, which was never built, and the acquisition also includes related patented technology, engineering and safety analyses, regulatory and permitting materials, equipment and historical project development records. NANO Nuclear said the existing licensed asset could offer a significantly more efficient regulatory pathway than developing and licensing a comparable facility on a new site, and that no final investment decision has been made on the optimal commercial and development pathway for the acquired assets.

GE Vernova and Hitachi have secured a construction permit from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a new reactor design, allowing the partners to begin licensed construction activities tied specifically to the advanced nuclear reactor project. The NRC approval confirms the reactor design meets current US regulatory requirements for safety and construction readiness. The permit adds nuclear hardware and long-cycle reactor work to GE Vernova's existing power equipment and services footprint, which already spans generation, grid hardware, and electricity storage across the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company's narrative leans on higher margin power and grid projects backed by recurring service contracts, and the permit ties that story directly to US regulators. Nuclear projects nonetheless add long-duration, lumpy exposure to a business already sensitive to big contracts, permitting cycles, and potential policy shifts, with any delay, redesign, or new safety requirement feeding into project timing and cash conversion.