The transition to next-generation Small Modular Reactors is constrained by a severe shortage of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), creating a strategic chokepoint that favors domestic enrichment leaders like Centrus.

The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (URNM) provides broad sector coverage.

Kazatomprom (NATKY/KAP) is particularly compelling as the world's largest producer with the lowest extraction costs via in-situ leach mining, high-quality deposits, and—critically—continuous operations and institutional expertise maintained throughout the nuclear winter.

Uranium itself represents the highest-visibility, lowest-risk play in the sector because all emerging reactor designs—regardless of which vendor wins—depend on a fragile and geographically concentrated fuel supply chain.

The result is a dramatically simpler design with fewer failure modes and a form factor suited to mass production. Oklo's "nuclear battery" model—fuel loaded at installation, 20 years of operation without refueling, then core module replacement—is well-suited to AI data center requirements and distributed applications.

NuScale appears to be the weakest SMR player by multiple measures. Despite being founded in 2007 and receiving the first NRC design certification for an SMR in the US, NuScale has yet to bring a single operating reactor to completion. Its flagship project with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems was cancelled in November 2023 after cost escalation pushed the estimated price per MWh from $58 to $89.