Nuclear energy has seen a hot start to 2026, benefitting from positive sentiment around artificial intelligence, ongoing support from the US government, and notable nuclear news from Meta (META). With only a few trading days in the books, some names in the VettaFi Nuclear Renaissance Index (NUKZX) are already up over 35% year to date through January 8.
That is before factoring in strong performance on Friday following announcements between Meta and NUKZX constituents, Oklo (OKLO) and Vistra (VST). At writing, OKLO and VST were up over 12% intra-day on January 9. Meta is partnering with OKLO to power its data centers in Southern Ohio and will help with funding the project by pre-paying for power. Meta also agreed to purchase nuclear power from Vistra, inking a 20-year power purchase agreement for over 2,600 megawatts. (Read more.)
More broadly within NUKZX, the strength so far has largely come from select names in the fuel and advanced nuclear categories. As shown below, advanced nuclear includes Nano Nuclear (NNE), NuScale (SMR), and Oklo, which were up over 35% year-to-date through January 8. These developers of small modular reactors (SMRs) tend to be sensitive to sentiment for artificial intelligence, which has been strong to start the year.
DOE Award Drives Mixed Performance in Fuel
Within Fuel, Centrus Energy (LEU) is up 17.9% through January 8 after announcing a $900 million task order from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its Ohio enrichment facility to produce High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium at commercial levels. The award was part of a competitive process and was included in a 2024 bipartisan funding package.
In total, the DOE awarded $2.7 billion in task orders for uranium enrichment, with two other companies receiving $900 million each. With energy security at the forefront, the government is clearly focused on supporting domestic enrichment for existing reactors and eventually advanced reactors.
