Investors in nuclear energy have additional reason to rejoice as the Trump administration seeks to boost nuclear reactor projects.
Costs could fall, revenues could rise and profits from nuclear energy could explode - in a positive sense, not in the Chernobyl sense.
Shares in nuclear power plants Constellation Energy ( CEG 6.09 % ) , Vistra ( VST 7.51 % ) and Oklo ( OKLO 2.10 % ) (Oklo is more of a nuclear start-up) all rose on Monday morning. The price movements may have been triggered by general investor enthusiasm following the Trump administration's weekend announcement to temporarily lift tariffs on China - but that's not the only reason why nuclear stocks are currently in such high demand.
As the New York Times reported on Friday, the Trump administration is planning to publish several executive orders aimed at speeding up the construction of new and reactivation of older nuclear power plants in the US. The report itself states that the administration is calling for swift and decisive action. These would entail a comprehensive overhaul of federal safety guidelines for the construction of nuclear power plants in order to reduce red tape and expedite projects.
Vistra shares top the list of nuclear stocks today with a 6% gain (as of 10:40 a.m.). Constellation is up 5.9% and Oklo is lagging behind with a gain of 3.3%.
Today in the nuclear news
What is the significance of this nuclear news and does it justify the price movements? According to the Times, the goal is to quadruple nuclear power capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050 - so it's a pretty big development.
The president's planned actions could not only significantly boost revenue by selling the additional power, but also help companies like Constellation, Vistra and Oklo with costs. As the Times notes, the two most recent nuclear reactors in the U.S. cost twice as much to build as originally estimated and took seven years longer than planned - largely due to bureaucratic hurdles that delayed construction and added compliance costs.
Is now the time to buy shares in Constellation Energy, Vistra or Oklo?
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. According to Statista, the average nuclear power plant in the US takes eleven years to build. If you deduct the additional seven years that the last two plants took, it is likely that a power plant announced today will not be completed for another four years - by which time President Trump will no longer be in office and US nuclear energy policy may have changed again. The success of these shares is therefore not guaranteed.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/05/12/nuclear-stocks-constellation-vistra-oklo-popped/
