Nuclear Bets: A Few More Atoms

So, the world still wants power. Funny, that. After all the things we’ve built, all the bright ideas, it comes down to splitting atoms. A few countries are thinking maybe, just maybe, nuclear isn’t the worst idea. America’s got a plan to quadruple its capacity by 2050. A big number. A lot of atoms. And Russia, naturally, has a hand in the uranium supply. It usually does. So it goes.

The stock market, being the stock market, noticed. A couple of companies went up. Then, predictably, wobbled. That’s when you look, if you’re the looking type. Cameco and Centrus Energy. Two names. Two bets on the future, or at least the next decade. Worth a glance, maybe.

Cameco: Digging Up the Good Stuff

Cameco, it turns out, digs uranium out of the ground. In Canada, mostly. They have mines called MacArthur River and Cigar Lake. Fancy names for holes in the earth. They account for a good chunk of the world’s high-quality uranium. They also have a stake in something in Kazakhstan. It’s all connected, you see. So it goes.

The stock went up a lot. 395% since the start of 2023. That’s a lot of percentage. Biden signed a law saying they don’t want uranium from Russia anymore. Which is understandable, I suppose. Waivers exist, naturally. They always do. They expire in 2028. Which feels like a long time, but isn’t, really. Cameco, being Canadian, might benefit. They’re also 49% owners of Westinghouse. Which builds reactors. And they have a deal with Brookfield Renewable Partners. It’s all about partnerships, isn’t it? Eighty billion dollars is a lot of money, even in this day and age.

Centrus Energy: Making the Atoms Work

Centrus Energy doesn’t dig stuff up. They take the uranium and… enrich it. Make it more useful. They provide fuel for the reactors. They get uranium from France and, yes, Russia. They’re trying to get away from the Russian stuff, though. Hard to do when they account for a quarter of your imports. So it goes.

The Department of Energy gave them nine hundred million dollars to expand their enrichment plant in Ohio. They want to make uranium domestically. Both the regular stuff and something called HALEU. Sounds important. It’s for advanced reactors. Companies like TerraPower and Oklo are involved. They’re the only ones licensed to make this HALEU. Which is a thing. A small thing, maybe, but a thing nonetheless.

Both companies are expensive. Really expensive. 74 and 66 times their projected earnings. That’s a lot of times. They’ll probably wobble a bit. That’s what stocks do. But if you think nuclear power is going to stick around, maybe these are worth holding. For a decade. Or more. It’s a long time, of course. But then again, what isn’t? So it goes.

2026-02-11 02:32

Cameco: Digging Up the Good Stuff

Centrus Energy: Making the Atoms Work

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