Nuclear stocks have been on a tear ever since President Trump signed a set of executive orders to revive the U.S. nuclear industry.
Among the biggest gainers is Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR), a company that makes advanced nuclear fuel designed to boost the output of existing reactors.
The stock has surged 67% in the past five days and is now up more than 250% year-to-date.
“What I think people are seeing is the progress we're making in the context of the marketplace just needing more power and strong bipartisan political support [putting] the wind at our backs,” CEO Seth Grae said in a Schwab Network interview.
In a recent press release, Lightbridge said the biggest opportunity lies in Trump’s directive for the Department of Energy to work with industry to boost output from existing reactors.
That’s where Lightbridge comes in. It could help upgrade roughly 17% of the U.S. reactor fleet, which the company describes as one of its most valuable use cases.
Grae also stressed what sets Lightbridge apart is that its fuel can work in today’s reactors, not just new designs that may not come online for years.
“There are a lot of companies developing new reactors that don't exist yet,” Grae said.
“We’re really unique in that we can target reactors that already exist… I think that is an enormous market for us as well as new reactors, of which there are going to be a tremendous number.”
Lightbridge is set to join the Russell 2000 and 3000 Indexes on June 30, which could bring broader visibility and new institutional investors.
Why Lightbridge has a head start against other nuclear stocks
The fact that Lightbridge technology can be deployed right here and now may give the company an edge over other nuclear stocks.
For example, Oklo Inc. (OKLO) and NuScale Power (SMR) are working on small modular reactors (SMRs), a technology that’s years away from commercialization.
Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital, told BNN Bloomberg that no SMRs are expected to go live in the U.S. before 2030.
Lightbridge and Oklo are both working at the Idaho National Laboratory, and Grae said they’re “exploring co-locating together our commercial scale fabrication facility to mass produce our products.”
While Trump’s orders are helping fuel momentum, Grae noted that nuclear had already been gaining support.
The Biden administration had previously called for tripling nuclear capacity. Trump now wants to quadruple it.
Grae believes nuclear energy could eventually supply half of all U.S. electricity, which would require a lot of investment, considering today’s 19% share.
Demand from utility companies has always been steady, he said, but it’s the rise of artificial intelligence that has sent interest soaring. And that’s where the White House’s push to expand nuclear is largely coming from.
“In addition to the utilities, there are these giant tech companies with multi-trillion dollar market caps looking to add more trillions,” Grae said.
“But the only way for them to do that is to not only get the data centers with the AI racks, but bring cities-worth of power to these data centers.”
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