Key points
- Four separate industries stand between ore and fuel
- One commercial enrichment plant operates in the US
- The four stocks cover different parts of the chain
A nuclear reactor cannot run on uranium the way it comes out of the ground. Between the mine and the reactor core there are four separate industrial stages, each a different business with different economics and different bottlenecks. That is the nuclear fuel supply chain, and it is the part of the nuclear trade the AI power story tends to skip.
Four US-listed companies illustrate different parts of that chain: Cameco (CCJ), Centrus Energy (LEU), Energy Fuels (UUUU) and BWX Technologies (BWXT). None covers all four stages, and one is mostly not in the commercial power business at all.
What are the four stages?
What follows describes the conventional enriched-uranium fuel cycle, the one that feeds today's light-water reactors and most of the advanced designs currently being financed. It is not a universal description of every nuclear technology. Some reactor types run on natural uranium without enrichment, and some advanced designs use fuel forms other than the pellet-and-rod assembly below.
Mining and milling. Uranium ore is extracted and processed into uranium concentrate, a powder known in the industry as yellowcake.
Conversion. Uranium concentrate is converted into uranium hexafluoride, which becomes a gas when heated. That prepares it for enrichment in centrifuges.
Enrichment. Natural uranium contains about 0.7% U-235, the isotope used to sustain the reactor's chain reaction. Centrifuges spin the gas to increase that proportion. Enrichment services are measured in separative work units, or SWU. These measure the separation work performed, not the amount of uranium produced. Enrichment plants are expensive and take years to build, leaving supply concentrated among a small number of operators.
Fabrication. The enriched material is then made into solid ceramic pellets. These go inside metal rods, which are grouped into fuel assemblies designed for a particular reactor.
What is HALEU and why does it matter?
HALEU stands for high-assay low-enriched uranium. It contains between 5% and less than 20% U-235, according to the Department of Energy. At 20%, uranium enters the highly enriched category, with stricter security and nonproliferation requirements.
Most operating commercial reactors use fuel enriched to below 5%. Many proposed advanced reactors and microreactors need HALEU instead. That means expanding nuclear power requires more than additional fuel production. It also requires the capacity to make fuel at the enrichment levels those designs need.
Very little commercial production stands behind that fuel, so there is limited commercial supply available for the proposed reactors. Rita Baranwal, chief nuclear officer at reactor developer Radiant, described her company's response in a September 9, 2026 announcement of a HALEU contract with Centrus.
"You can't deploy nuclear reactors without fuel, so we have approached our fuel supply the same way we have approached the reactor: build it in parallel, and don't depend on any single path," she said.
Those contracts carry customer prepayments, meaning the reactor developer helps fund the enrichment capacity that will serve it. Centrus signed a second one on September 17, 2026 with Antares, which develops compact reactors for use on Earth and in space. Both are multi-year, both begin deliveries before the end of the decade, and neither discloses financial terms. Centrus produces HALEU at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.
Why does the US depend on overseas enrichment?
Because for decades it was cheaper to buy the service abroad, and a large share came from Russia. Domestic enrichment did not stop. Urenco USA runs a commercial enrichment plant at Eunice, New Mexico, which the company describes as the only domestic commercial enrichment facility in operation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorized that plant on September 30, 2025 to enrich up to 10% U-235. That authorization is a licensing milestone rather than evidence of output at that level, and the announcement covers the approval, not production volumes. One operating plant is a thin base for the demand being projected, which is the actual issue rather than an absence of capacity.
The sourcing picture changed with the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's summary, it bars imports of both natural uranium and unirradiated low-enriched uranium from the Russian Federation or a Russian entity, and covers material swapped for those types to get around the restriction. It took effect on August 11, 2024, and the Secretary of Energy can grant waivers under DOE guidance.
Rebuilding capacity is now federal policy. DOE announced $2.7 billion in enrichment awards on January 5, 2026, covering the following ten years. These are awarded task orders rather than money already spent, distributed under what DOE called a strict milestone approach. American Centrifuge Operating, a Centrus subsidiary, and the startup General Matter each received $900 million for HALEU enrichment, and Orano Federal Services received $900 million to expand domestic LEU enrichment. DOE described a further $28 million to Global Laser Enrichment as an additional award that day, so it sits outside the $2.7 billion.
How far that stretches depends on how much capacity gets built. A November 2025 analysis by Juzel Lloyd, Adam Stein, Seaver Wang, Peter Cook and Matthew L. Wald at the Breakthrough Institute put existing and near-term US-based enrichment by Centrus and Urenco at about 8.8 million SWU, against 2050 demand of 31.4 million to 96.5 million SWU for 250 to 490 gigawatts of capacity. The study separately estimates that current capacity could meet only 10% to 25% of projected annual needs in 2050. Its 8.8 million SWU figure includes both existing capacity and near-term additions.
Does a hyperscaler power deal create fuel demand?
Not automatically, and this is the assumption worth checking whenever one is announced. A power purchase agreement buys electricity from a plant. If that plant already operates and already has fuel contracts, the agreement changes who buys the output, not how much uranium the world needs. Alphabet (GOOGL) unit Google said on September 9, 2026 it would invest 13 billion euros ($15.1 billion) in Finland across 2027 and 2028, and signed a 22-year agreement covering up to 50% of the capacity of the Loviisa nuclear plant. Loviisa is an operating plant, and the agreement gives its operator, Fortum, the revenue certainty to extend the plant's life to 2050, World Nuclear News reported. Extending a plant past its planned retirement does create fuel demand that would otherwise have ended. Simply buying its existing output does not.
New reactors are where fuel demand genuinely rises, and those are further out. A June 2026 Carnegie Endowment analysis estimates hyperscaler commitments could represent about 6.9 gigawatts by the early 2030s, with some projects depending on reactors that have not been commercialized. It is the same dynamic that shaped how the AI power shortage reached the nuclear industry.
Which stocks sit in which stage?
Cameco is the largest of the four and the most diversified, covering mining, conversion and fuel services. Centrus is the US-listed enrichment name. Energy Fuels mines uranium in the US and also runs a rare earth business at its White Mesa Mill in Utah, which is where most of its news has come from this year. Urenco, which runs the New Mexico plant, is privately held and not listed in the US.
BWX Technologies needs a caveat the table cannot carry. Its Government Operations segment manufactures naval nuclear reactors and their fuel for the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, submarine and carrier work with no connection to commercial power or data centers. Its Commercial Operations segment fabricates fuel, steam generators and reactor components for utilities, and only that second segment is exposed to a commercial buildout.
| Company | Ticker | Stage of the chain | Market value | Sept. 17, 2026 close | 52-week high | 52-week low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameco | CCJ | Mining, conversion, fuel services | $40.6B | $92.76 | $135.24 | $77.70 |
| Centrus Energy | LEU | Enrichment, HALEU | $3.07B | $149.87 | $464.25 | $135.85 |
| Energy Fuels | UUUU | Uranium mining, rare earths | $3.18B | $12.00 | $27.90 | $10.69 |
| BWX Technologies | BWXT | Naval and commercial fuel and components | $13.4B | $146.29 | $241.82 | $144.33 |
Do not expect the four to move together. Between the end of July and August 24, 2026, Energy Fuels rose about 30% while BWX Technologies fell about 11%, and the VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF (NLR) rose about 11%. The miners and the fabricator went opposite directions inside the same sector in the same weeks, and the reactor developers rallied on news of their own earlier that month.
Centrus shows how little the fuel stocks track the demand headlines. It priced a $500 million offering of stock and warrants on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, reported in an 8-K covering that date, and the stock fell about 8.7% the next trading day, Thursday, September 10, closing at $165.80, MT Newswires reported. Both HALEU contracts above were signed within nine days of that pricing.
