NuScale Power Spikes 13%, Oklo Climbs 7%: Is the Nuclear Selloff Finally Exhausted?
Small modular reactor stocks are surging against a red broad market, but with NuScale and Oklo still deep in the red for the year, the real question is whether this is a genuine bottom or just another bounce trap in…
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A rotation back into nuclear names is running through the complex on Tuesday morning, and small modular reactor developers are leading the tape higher. The Global X Uranium ETF (NYSEARCA:URA) is up 4% as the sector proxy. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.3%, so the nuclear bid’s running against a soft broad market.
NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) stock is up 13% to $10.94 in morning trading. However, NuScale stock remains down 24% year to date (YTD), a reminder of how deep the summer selloff cut into the SMR trade.
Oklo (NYSE:OKLO | OKLO Price Prediction) stock is climbing 7% to $43.99. Meanwhile, Oklo stock is still down 39% YTD, and enriched-uranium peer Centrus Energy (NYSEAMERICAN:LEU) stock is trading in sympathy as the fuel side of the same complex.
Rotation Back Into Nuclear Stocks
No company-specific announcement from NuScale accounts for the move, and Oklo hasn’t put out fresh news either. Both developers were quiet overnight on customer contracts, NRC updates, and financing headlines. Money is coming back into a theme that was heavily sold through the summer (we mapped five ways to play the nuclear restart, utilities and fuel included, in a free report here), and it’s showing up across the group at once.
The uranium fuel side is bid too, with Centrus Energy stock trading higher alongside the reactor developers. Complex-wide participation on a session where the broad tape is red is the tell for a theme rotation. Short-covering into a thin book on stocks carrying big options gamma can add fuel to a directional move.
Options positioning backs the read. The full-chain put/call ratio on NuScale sits at 0.2, and Oklo runs at 0.29, both light on downside hedging relative to call demand. Retail chatter on Oklo also skewed bullish in early September, with sentiment on the “Oklo Advantage” thread reaching a very bullish 82 score on one boundary.
AI Power Demand Still Anchors the Bull Case
NuScale’s structural case rests on being the only U.S. NRC design-certified SMR developer, and management has pointed to a supply chain of more than 60 specialized partners with over 30 agreements executed. Commercialization partner ENTRA1 is advancing discussions with TVA toward a definitive power purchase agreement that could become the largest U.S. nuclear deployment program to date. The company ended Q2 2026 with $1.9 billion in cash and investments, which buys the company time to convert that pipeline into signed offtake.
Oklo’s pitch is a customer pipeline of roughly 14 GW, anchored by a 12 GW Switch master power agreement and a 500 MW Equinix LOI with a $25 million pre-payment. The company is targeting first commercial power late 2027 to early 2028 at Idaho National Laboratory, with the Aurora powerhouse design scaled from 50 MW to up to 75 MW to meet data-center demand. Radioisotope revenue from the Atomic Alchemy acquisition could arrive as early as 2026, giving the story an earlier revenue on-ramp than the reactor timeline alone would imply.
Session Scorecard vs. Year to Date
The one-day rebound looks striking, yet the YTD picture keeps the trade grounded. Both NuScale stock and Oklo stock remain deeply negative for 2026 even after Tuesday’s push higher, and today’s move only chips away at the summer damage.
| Ticker | Session Move | YTD |
|---|---|---|
| SMR | +13% | -24% |
| OKLO | +7% | -39% |
| URA | +4% | +12% |
A stock recovering from a heavily sold position can rise hard for days without changing where it stands for the year. The useful measure is the gap that’s left: 24% for NuScale stock and 39% for Oklo stock to recover before either turns green on the year. Centrus, which has actual revenue and a $4.5 billion total backlog, anchors the fuel side of the complex and often leads sentiment shifts in SWU pricing, which matters when trying to gauge whether the theme’s fundamentals are firming.
What to Watch Next
The cleanest evidence that this bounce means more than a short squeeze would be URA holding its gain for several sessions in a row. A single day of green in a beaten-down theme doesn’t settle the exhaustion question, and both stocks carry the volatility profile to give the move back as fast as they built it. Momentum names in this corner often print sharp two- or three-day rebounds inside larger downtrends, so the follow-through window is what separates a real bottom from a bounce.
Investors sizing their positions in NuScale stock or Oklo stock can treat this as a tradeable bounce with tight risk. You may choose to leave room to add if the URA ETF follows through into Wednesday and Thursday, while keeping your exposure sensible as nuclear stocks rebuild a base. In addition, traders can watch for confirmation in Centrus stock as well, since fuel-side strength tends to precede sustained reactor-developer runs.
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David Moadel is financial writer specializing in stocks, ETFs, options, precious metals, and Bitcoin. David has written well over 1,000 articles for leading online publications, helping investors understand markets, income strategies, and risk.His work has appeared in The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, U.S. News & World Report, TipRanks, ValueWalk, Benzinga, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, Finmasters, 24/7 Wall St., and others.With a master’s degree in education, David has taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. That teaching background shapes his writing style: clear, educational, and practical. David has also built a loyal social-media audience by providing trustworthy financial content on YouTube, X/Twitter, and StockTwits.
