VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF
VanEck
Tracks the MarketVector Global Uranium & Nuclear Energy Index — the full nuclear value chain: miners, enrichers, reactor builders, and the nuclear utilities that actually sell power to data centers.
Top holdings
Largest US nuclear utility; signs AI/datacenter PPAs
World's largest pure-play uranium producer
US utility with a nuclear fleet
Reactor components — naval + SMR
US uranium enrichment (HALEU)
Advanced SMR developer
Performance
July 2026: 7.9% ($115.98 Jun 30 -> $106.83 Jul 31); intramonth low $102.70 on Jul 29, vs S&P 500 -0.1%. — Annual distributor ($3.1661 ex-Dec 22 2025), so 2026 has no distributions: price return = total return. YTD derived from $106.83 vs a ~$123.52 Dec-31-25 base implied by the Jul 17 close ($104.20) at a reported -15.64% YTD; YCharts independently shows -14.0%. Investing.com's -6.27% YTD / +7.34% 1Y / $4.21B AUM contradict the price series and are not adopted. VanEck's own page was unreachable.
Recent moves
Core beneficiary of the re-rating — AUM swelled toward ~$4.5B as hyperscaler nuclear PPAs (Microsoft/Amazon/Google) and SMR interest re-rated utilities (CEG, PEG), fuel-cycle names (CCJ, LEU), and reactor builders (BWXT, OKLO).
Our take
The most direct 'nuclear electricity demand' play of the group — because it owns the utilities and enrichers, not just miners, it's the cleanest single ticker for the literal AI-datacenter-buys-nuclear-power thesis, with less commodity-price whipsaw than the miner funds.
The differentiator is real and it is the utility sleeve — ~22-27% in regulated/merchant power generators (CEG, PEG, Fortum, CGN) is what separates NLR from the Sprott/Global X miner funds and makes 'AI datacenter buys nuclear power' a literal holding rather than a bet on the uranium spot price.
That also explains the ~3% dividend and the group-low 0.52% fee — genuine edges. But marketing buries two cautions. First, 'less whipsaw' is relative, not absolute: NLR sits near its 52-week low (~$102; price $105 vs $168 high), 1-year total return -8%, YTD swinging from ~+16.5% (mid-April) to ~-16% now — a violent round-trip for the fund sold as the calmer nuclear option. Second, the honest long-term number: since its Aug-2007 inception NLR has compounded only ~2.9%/yr, having lived through Fukushima and a decade of nuclear being un-investable. This is a boom-bust thematic vehicle; the 2025 re-rating is the latest cycle, not a new regime.
Thesis
NLR's pitch is the only single-ticker way to own the whole nuclear value chain weighted toward the utilities/operators that literally sell power to data centers (CEG, PEG, Fortum ~22%), not just uranium miners — so it's framed as the 'electricity-demand' nuclear play with less commodity whipsaw than URA/URNM. The 2026 round-trip stress-tests that claim.
Market-cap-weighted MarketVector Global Uranium & Nuclear Energy index, 32 holdings across four sleeves: nuclear utilities/operators (CEG, PEG, Fortum, CGN), fuel-cycle/miners (CCJ, NexGen, Denison, Kazatomprom, UEC), enrichment/reactor builders (BWXT, Centrus/LEU), and pre-revenue SMR developers (Oklo, NuScale ~8.5%). Long-only, no leverage. 0.52% fee; ~3% dividend from the utility sleeve.
- 2026-07July 2026 isolated the variable: an AI-hardware-specific rout (SOX -20.6%, SMH -17.6%) with the S&P 500 -0.1% and NVDA flat-to-up still took NLR -7.9%. It traded as an AI-capex derivative, not a defensive power sleeve.
Assessment
- The only nuclear ETF meaningfully weighted to power utilities/operators (CEG, PEG, Fortum, CGN ~27%) — real electricity-demand exposure, not just uranium-price beta.
- Cheapest of the nuclear-thematic group at 0.52%, and the only one paying a meaningful ~3% dividend, thrown off by its utility sleeve (miner funds yield ~nothing).
- Genuinely spans the whole value chain — miners, enrichers (LEU/BWXT), operators, and SMR developers — so no single sub-sector dictates the result; top 10 ~62%.
- Not leveraged/daily-reset: no volatility-decay mechanics, so it is structurally holdable through a cycle, unlike the 2-3x single-stock/leveraged nuclear trading vehicles.
- 'Less commodity whipsaw' is relative only — NLR still trades near its 52-week low (~$102; price $105 vs $168 high), -8% over 1 year, with a ~+16.5%→-16% YTD round-trip in roughly three months.
- Since-2007-inception CAGR is only ~2.9%/yr through Fukushima and the lost nuclear decade — evidence this is a cyclical boom-bust theme, not a steady compounder.
- ~8.5% sits in pre-revenue SMR story stocks (Oklo, NuScale) and the fund carries a ~31x P/E, baking in a lot of unbuilt-reactor optimism.
- Meaningful non-US/FX/geopolitical exposure: Kazatomprom (Kazakhstan), Fortum (Finland), Paladin (Australia), and CGN Power — a Chinese state-owned utility carrying sanctions/regulatory risk.
- AUM has slipped from ~$4.5B toward ~$3.74B as the trade cooled — fast-money flows can reverse and pressure the more thinly traded international names.
Record
Attribution: the 2024-25 gains were the nuclear re-rating — hyperscaler PPAs (Microsoft/Amazon/Google), uranium spot back above $100/lb, and utilities re-rating on AI power demand, lifting CEG/CCJ/BWXT together. That has partially reversed in 2026: 1-year total return -8%, YTD ~-16% off an April peak, price ~$105 vs a $168 high — roughly a 38% drawdown from the top. The utility sleeve dampened but did not prevent it. The '~+40% 1y / +38% 3y' figures still in circulation were measured at earlier 2026 peaks and no longer describe the fund; the current, more conservative reads (stockanalysis, Jul 2026) do. Note the returns are still dominated by the same nuclear-cycle beta driving the miner funds, so the 'diversified value chain' pitch delivers less independence than it implies.
- 2026-07Marked to the 31 Jul 2026 close of $106.83: 1-year total return -5.5%, YTD ~-13.5%, and -36.5% from the $168.12 52-week high, after a bounce off the $102.70 low of 29 Jul.
Risks & fit
- Cyclical reversal: nuclear/uranium sentiment can round-trip fast (the +16.5%→-16% YTD swing); the theme has a 15-year boom-bust history.
- Rate sensitivity: the utility sleeve (CEG, PEG, Fortum) de-rates when long yields rise, a macro headwind independent of the nuclear story.
- SMR execution risk: Oklo/NuScale (~8.5%) are pre-cashflow — a delayed or cancelled reactor program hits them hard.
- Geopolitical/SOE risk: CGN Power (Chinese SOE) and Kazatomprom exposure carry sanctions, capital-control, and FX risk.
- Concentration: a single-theme 32-name fund with top 10 ~62% — one policy shift (subsidy, licensing) moves the whole book together.
The 'calmer, electricity-demand' thesis is falsified if, over a full drawdown measured on the same dates, NLR's peak-to-trough loss is not materially smaller than the miner funds' (URA/URNM/URNJ) — i.e. if its returns are just the same uranium beta and the operators only add rate risk without cushioning downside. The 2026 ~38%-from-high fall is early evidence the cushion is thin. Separately, the long-term case fails if the ~2.9% since-inception CAGR proves representative rather than a Fukushima-scarred artifact — i.e. if AI-power demand doesn't convert into sustained utility earnings.
Suits an investor who wants the AI-power/nuclear-renaissance thesis expressed through operating utilities and the full fuel cycle rather than pure uranium-price beta, who values the group's lowest fee plus a real ~3% dividend, and who can tolerate a concentrated, internationally-exposed single-theme fund with 30%+ drawdowns. Those wanting maximum commodity torque (URNJ/URNM) or a broad uranium proxy (URA) are looking at a different risk profile.
0.52% net expense ratio — the lowest of the nuclear-thematic group (URA ~0.69%, Sprott URNM/URNJ ~0.75-0.80%, NUKZ ~0.85%; peer fees approximate) — and uniquely it pays a ~3% dividend from its utilities that miner-only funds do not.