If you love your portfolio with a side of glowing risk, Friday was your Christmas. Perhaps you’ve heard, but Donnie Politics ended the week of chaos by signing a stack of executive orders that basically shot the entire nuclear power sector full of radioactive adrenaline… and Wall Street, naturally, went absolutely feral. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, the big idea for these executive orders is to gut the 50-year-old Nuclear Regulatory Commission… a.k.a. the only thing standing between America and its Godzilla phase… and slap a turbocharger on reactor approvals. The new rules force the NRC to rubber-stamp (err… “decide on”) nuclear reactor licenses within 18 months. For reference, that’s basically overnight in government time, where “soon” means sometime before the next asteroid impact. 

The aftermath? Nuclear stocks didn’t just rally… they went… well, nuclear. Oklo and NuScale  both yeeted themselves up 23% and 19% because “advanced reactors” is the new AI for hype addicts. Constellation Energy, also got a less dramatic 2% bump, while Cameco Corp, the uranium-mining villain, was up a bigly 11%. 

(Source: CNBC) 

On the other hand, Trump’s not just focusing on the small modular reactors here (think: Nuclear plants, but make them fun-sized)... He’s also promising “the very, very big, the biggest” plants. His words, not mine. However, this move will ultimately force the NRC to actually do its job on a schedule (no more water cooler breaks), launch new uranium mining and enrichment like it’s 1957 all over again, let the Departments of Energy and Defense slap reactors on federal land (Yellowstone nuclear, what could go wrong?).... Oh, and give a regulatory green light to data center titans (Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon) who are now openly thirsting for reactor-powered AI server farms. 

Now for all you reading this and wondering why this is such a BFD, well here’s why: The U.S. nuclear industry has been stuck in a financial waste pool for the last decade, with a dozen reactors taking early retirement thanks to cheap natural gas and a total lack of political backbone. Now, thanks to the AI arms race, suddenly everyone’s got a religion about carbon-free, always-on power. Hell, Microsoft is literally bankrolling the resurrection of Three Mile Island, which you might recall from “that time Homer Simpson nearly vaporized Pennsylvania.”

(Source: Giphy) 

This is precisely why nuclear stocks ripped. The sector’s getting the kind of regulatory tailwind that used to be reserved for oil, defense, and whichever industry just hired Hunter Biden. Meaning, nuclear investors are living their best life right now… however, the question is… what’s the worst that could happen when you smash the accelerator on a notoriously complex and meltdown-prone industry? Spoiler: Alot. 

For now, keep your portfolio in check and place your bets accordingly, friends. Until next time… 

Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.