Nuclear power is having a moment: VanEck CEO

Nuclear energy, left for dead over the past thirty years or so, is back. 

“There has been a huge policy shift globally and there is now bipartisan support for nuclear, and we need it,” Jan VanEck, CEO of the firm that bears his name, told FOX Business’ Liz Claman. 

The revival has ignited the 18-year-old VanEck Uranium and Nuclear exchange traded fund, which has advanced 40% this year. The firm raised $1 billion in assets this year alone, he stated, with total assets now sitting at $2.8 billion. 

VanEck says the ETF stands out because it offers diversification. 

“The kind of other ETFs out there we’re just uranium mining ETFs. And so, mining is okay, and uranium is okay, but you can actually have a lot of growth in the industry and uranium stays flat right depending on supply demand. So, we get the users, get the utilities that are leveraged into nuclear power, get some of the miners. But what’s really been the star over the last 12 months has been the new tech companies, the SMRs (small modular reactors) and they’ve rocketed” he explained. 

Top holdings include SMR NuScale, plain vanilla power company PG&E as well as Nano Nuclear Energy. 

With the support of the Trump administration, the runaway for growth looks solid after the signing of an executive order that aims to quadruple domestic nuclear power production over the next 25 years. 

“Trump has just pushed so hard on the adoption of this technology. They’re bringing online like Three Mile Island, one of their reactors a year ahead of time. Like you haven’t had those words in that order in the nuclear industry for 30 years” he said.