NuScale Is Still Down 61% in 2026: Did Today Mark the Bottom for SMR Stock?

A rally across nuclear developers is giving NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) a rare winning session in a hard 2026. NuScale stock is trading at $5.52, up 9% in afternoon trading. Even so, SMR shares remain down 61% year to date (YTD), and one green day doesn’t settle whether the selling is finished.

Behind the volatility sits a real regulatory asset, as NuScale holds the only small modular reactor design certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), while small modular reactors are factory-built nuclear units far smaller than conventional plants, meant to be installed in groups as power demand grows.

Oklo (NYSE:OKLO | OKLO Price Prediction) stock is down 62% YTD to $27.33, a deeper slide than NuScale’s, and it’s climbing with the group. Nano Nuclear Energy (NASDAQ:NNE) stock is down 48% YTD to $12.51 and is also moving higher. All three are pre-commercial reactor developers. Their stocks tend to trade on sentiment and milestones more than on current earnings (we mapped five ways to play the nuclear restart, from utilities to fuel suppliers, in a free report you can grab here).

How Doosan and Q3 Results Reshaped NuScale’s 2026

On October 29, NuScale hired Doosan Enerbility to manufacture the upper reactor coolant system for its first commercial power module. Chief Executive John Hopkins framed the shift on the company’s November 5 earnings call: “We are no longer simply designing and planning. We are manufacturing.” The company has relationships with more than 60 specialized suppliers and is pursuing dual or third sourcing for most packages.

NuScale Power reported a Q3 2026 loss per share of $0.11, smaller than expected. A sales collapse offset that beat, as NuScale Power booked Q3 revenue of $281,000 versus $8.24 million in the year-ago quarter. That year-ago figure included front-end engineering work for the RoPower project in Romania, which wrapped up in late 2025 with nothing comparable since.

How NuScale’s Business Model Differs From Oklo and Nano Nuclear

As an equipment maker, NuScale plans to sell its light-water reactor modules to developers such as ENTRA1 Energy and earn engineering fees along the way, while Oklo takes a different path, aiming to build, own and operate its own Aurora powerhouses and sell electricity directly to customers. Building its own plants leaves Oklo carrying construction risk, though the company already has structural steel rising at its Idaho site under Department of Energy authorization.

Nano Nuclear is the smallest of the three by market value and is developing portable microreactor concepts at an earlier stage. Compared with both peers, NuScale is further along on licensing, while Oklo is further along on physical construction.

Weighing the Bull and Bear Cases on NuScale

Bulls start with the balance sheet. NuScale Power ended Q3 with $1.9 billion in cash, equivalents and investments, against a $2.27 billion market value. That buffer leaves NuScale’s enterprise value (market value plus debt minus cash, a gauge of what buyers pay for the operating business) well below its market value. Management is also leaning on ENTRA1’s talks with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which NuScale describes as the largest commercial nuclear power deployment program in U.S. history.

Bears note that NuScale has no binding customer contracts to deliver modules. Hopkins made the point clear. A power purchase agreement (PPA) between ENTRA1 and TVA wouldn’t itself be a module sale: “The PPA in itself is not a sale of modules.” Analysts have flagged that a large TVA deal could slip into 2027, and management described the process as ongoing and extended.

Dilution is another sore spot. At September 30, NuScale Power had 410.5 million Class A shares outstanding, up from 318.5 million at the end of 2025. NuScale also signed a $750 million at-the-market program in August, which lets it sell new stock gradually into the market. Quarterly spending stays heavy: operating expenses came to $65 million in Q3, and Chief Financial Officer Ramsey Hamady said they “should remain fairly constant.”

Checkpoints That Could Settle NuScale’s Bottom Debate

NuScale now faces the question of whether ENTRA1 signs a binding PPA with TVA. A first module order under a separate original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement would follow, and Hamady stated, “Once we have an order to work out an OEM agreement, we’ll have further clarity on margins.”

NuScale’s full-year 2026 report, expected in late February, adds one more checkpoint. Any signed TVA deal could validate the hardware push, while further delays could keep dilution and thin sales in focus. Before drawing any firm conclusions about SMR stock, it may help to see how the TVA question resolves.

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