Governments around the world are rapidly reembracing nuclear power in efforts to reduce carbon emissions and bolster energy security.

After decades of disaster-driven reluctance to embrace the technology, nuclear’s share of global energy output is now expected to soar in the coming years with billions of dollars around the world spent on developing the required infrastructure.

Nuclear power represented around 17 per cent of the total global electricity generation mix at its mid-80s peak, but the disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima in 1986 and 2011, respectively, have aided its decline to just 9 per cent, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Research.

But the bank now expects this to rise to 12 per cent by 2040 in efforts to meet the world’s growing power needs.

Doing so will require an enormous increase in uranium production, creating a widening supply deficit analysts think could provide a substantial tailwind for the shares of the companies mining the radioactive heavy metal element.

There has been a flurry of legal and regulatory changes to nuclear policy enacted around the world recently, after COP29 in November saw 31 countries pledge to advance the goal of tripling global nuclear generation by 2050.

US President Donald Trump signed executive orders to accelerate nuclear adoption in May.

The UK recently approved Rolls-Royce’s new Small Modular Reactors and billions of pounds in funding for the Sizewell C plant. Japan has restarted key nuclear reactors, while Germany also eased its approach.

EDF Sizewell B nuclear power station will be followed with Sizewell C in the coming years 

The US wants to grow output from 100GW today to 400GW by 2050, while China has a target of 200GW with plans to build 150 nuclear reactors over the next 15 years.

As a result, Goldman forecasts global nuclear generating capacity will rise from 378GW to 575GW over the next 15 years.

There are 61 nuclear reactors currently under construction across 15 different countries, roughly half of which are located in China, while there are around 85 new reactors currently planned across the globe and another 359 proposed.

It means annual uranium production is set to increase from its current 80,000 tons to nearly 95,000 tons in 2030, before eventually declining to around 60,000 tons by 2045, according to Goldman.

The bank is forecasting a uranium supply deficit of roughly 17,500 tons by 2030, on its way to 100,000 tons by 2045 as new reactors come online.

Goldman said: ‘This structural deficit is likely to cause uranium prices to rise. This, in turn, could drive up the price of nuclear uranium mining stocks.’

Nuclear power generation growth began stagnating after the Chernobyl disaster 

Uranium prices have been fallen and remain well below all-time highs set in 2007 

Will uranium prices be powered out of doldrums?

Uranium prices rose sharply between the end of 2016 and the start of 2024 when they started going into decline.

The metal traded at around $81.21 per pound last February but was worth $52.17 per pound as of April 2025, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Analysts point to a supply surplus putting pressure on prices.

But increasingly sour US relationships with Canada and Russia – both large uranium producers – has also weighed on prices amid trade disputes and the Ukraine war.

Uranium now sits more than 60 per cent below its 2007 all-time high of $136.22, when growth was fuelled by anticipation of a nuclear renaissance that would ultimately be derailed by events at Fukushima.

‘A structurally undersupplied uranium market now faces even greater demand pressure – from new reactors, life extensions, and growing policy support,’ said Hector McNeil, co-founder and co-CEO of HANetf, which provides ETF products with exposure to uranium miners.

‘Conditions are potentially aligning for a sustained bull market in uranium – and the World Bank’s shift only adds to that.’

HANetf’s Sprott Uranium Miners ETF, which invests in uranium mining, exploration, development and production stocks, is down more than 25 per cent over the last five years, but has clawed back a bumper 16.22 per cent in the last month, illustrating volatility in the sector.

Nations around the world are planning to boost their use of nuclear energy 

Buying opportunities?

There are now many ETFs available to UK investors that offer exposure to uranium, including Global X ETFs Uranium, VanEck Uranium and Nuclear Technologies, and WisdomTree Uranium and Nuclear Energy.

But there are just three London-listed stocks in the uranium sector, according to Stockopedia.

This includes Yellow Cake, which offers exposure to the uranium spot price, and explorer-developer turned producer Aura Energy.

But the stand-out, according to analysts, is industry giant Kazatomprom, or the National Atomic Company Kazatomprom Joint Stock Company.

The group, which is dual-listed in London and Kazakhstan, is the world’s largest producer and seller of natural uranium, providing over 40 per cent of global primary uranium supply as of 2019.

Kazatomprom boasts a Stockopedia StockRank of 89 out of 100, meaning it is among most highly rated companies available on the market, according to the share analysis site.

It holds a Stockopedia ‘quality’ rank of 95, while three of the seven analysts covering the stock tracked by the website rank Kazatomprom as a ‘strong buy’ and the remaining four rank it as a ‘buy’.

Kamil Sudiyarov, senior product manager at VanEck, said stocks in North America including Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy, have been buoyed by ‘recent US isolationist tendencies and focus on supply chain security’.

He also highlighted a ‘dip in Canadian Uranium miners share prices, caused by uncertainty in the US/Canada trade relations,’ which reversed in the second quarter ‘due to a partial change in US stance’. 

Sudiyarov said: ‘There is noticeable YTD weakness in spot uranium prices… however long-term prices (at which major utilities and uranium miners mostly operate) are remaining stable at around 80 $/lb, which in our opinion means that the potential of the Nuclear theme is still intact.’

However, BlackRock Investment Institute urges investors not to get ahead of themselves.

It said: ‘Growing power demand has policymakers rethinking the trade-offs between energy sustainability, affordability and security.

‘We see opportunities in nuclear, US natural gas and renewables (especially solar and batteries).

‘[But] given how long it takes to build nuclear power plants, we see natural gas and renewables benefiting sooner.

US nuclear stocks have outperformed renewables and traditional energy since 2019 

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