2 Nuclear Stocks Worth Owning for the Entire Year as Power Demand Keeps Climbing

Cameco stands to benefit from uranium prices rising to $84.25/lb, with Citi seeing $100-$125/lb this year and analysts projecting 2025-2028 revenue and EBITDA CAGRs of 8% and 12%. Oklo’s Aurora microreactor could reach first deployment in Idaho in 2027, with revenue expected to grow from under $1 million in 2026 to $36 million in 2028, though the stock remains highly speculative at 233x 2028 revenue. The article is broadly constructive on nuclear energy demand, but it is primarily a stock-picking commentary rather than a direct company catalyst.

Analysis

The setup is less about a clean thematic trade on nuclear and more about a bifurcation between a cash-generative commodity lever and an execution optionality story. CCJ benefits first because upstream fuel supply is the bottleneck that must clear before any reactor buildout can monetize; that gives it the most direct exposure to contracting tightness and a relatively short feedback loop over the next 6-18 months. The non-obvious risk is that once uranium prices normalize higher, the market may begin valuing supply security and midstream conversion/enrichment capacity more than raw tons, which could compress the relative upside for pure miners while expanding it for integrated nuclear infrastructure owners.

OKLO is a much longer-duration call option on regulatory confidence, project delivery, and financing discipline rather than near-term earnings. The market is likely underestimating how punitive the path to first cash flow can be for first-of-a-kind small reactors: any slip in licensing, fuel qualification, or DoD deployment timing can re-rate the stock sharply lower because there is no operating profit to anchor valuation. The upside case is asymmetric only if management can convert its defense and remote-power pipeline into a repeatable permitting template; otherwise, the equity remains vulnerable to dilution and speculative multiple compression over the next 12-24 months.

The second-order winner set is broader than the article implies: enrichment, fabrication, and Westinghouse-like services should gain pricing power if utilities and governments treat fuel security as strategic infrastructure. That argues for viewing CCJ as a barbell with the higher-quality portion of the trade, while OKLO is the venture-style leg. The consensus is probably overconfident on the speed of reactor adoption and underconfident on the persistence of fuel scarcity; the bigger near-term trade is likely the supply chain squeeze, not the ultimate buildout story.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long CCJ as the preferred 6-12 month expression of the nuclear trade; use any post-rally pullback to add, targeting a move driven by higher uranium contract resets and improved downstream optionality. Risk/reward favors CCJ over OKLO because earnings visibility is materially better.
• Avoid outright long OKLO into strength unless willing to hold 2-3 years; the stock is a high-beta financing/rulemaking story, and any delay in first deployment could trigger a 30-50% drawdown. If long, size small and treat as venture exposure, not core equity.
• Pair trade: long CCJ / short a basket of weak balance-sheet clean-energy developers to isolate the nuclear fuel scarcity theme from broader speculative multiple compression. This should work if rates stay restrictive and capital-intensive project names keep underperforming.
• Consider a call spread in CCJ over the next 3-6 months rather than stock, as the main catalyst is likely contract repricing and sentiment-driven multiple expansion, but upside may be capped if the uranium tape stalls.
• Watch for a rotation into uranium services/enrichment names on any pullback in CCJ; that is where the next leg of the trade may be if investors start pricing strategic fuel security instead of just spot uranium.