| Market signal | Last | Week |
Cost of capital
US 10-year Treasury | 5.19% | −1.6% |
Nuclear sector
NUKZ ETF | $58.42 | −5.4% |
Uranium
SRUUF, physical uranium trust | $18.22 | −6.0% |
Developers
OKLO, SMR, NNE equal weight | | −21.3% |
In context: The developers took this week’s damage. A hot September inflation report pressured the whole market on October 14, and NuScale, still carrying UBS’s September Sell downgrade, led the OKLO, SMR and NNE basket down 21% on the week. NuScale itself now sits 60% below its January level. Capital barely moved, the uranium trust fell 6%, and October’s uprate deals went to reactors already earning revenue.
Sources: Yahoo Finance, closes through October 14.
This week at a glance
-
The orders cover four safety-related structural modules from four Polish suppliers for the Lubiatowo-Kopalino plant, pending nuclear-quality certification and successful mockup fabrication.
-
The filing targets the second half of the 2030s for a 470 MWe unit, the second such design deployed anywhere after the UK's, inside a Czech plan for up to 3 GW.
-
NANO Nuclear's
KRONOS microreactor program advanced through NRC review at the University of Illinois
The construction permit application has been under formal review since June; the NRC's public schedule doesn't expect a draft safety evaluation before February 2027.
-
Pomerantz is examining possible securities-law violations tied to UBS's September Sell downgrade and the stock's slide since, adding litigation risk on top of NuScale's funding gap.
Source → live map at getentel.com/nukemap
Stat of the week
700,000 SWU
The new enrichment capacity, in separative work units per year, Urenco USA is adding at its New Mexico plant by spring 2027. Six of eight planned cascades, more than 500,000 SWU of it, are now running after the sixth came online this week.
In depth
Reference: terms in this issue
License amendment request: A formal request asking the NRC to approve a change to an already-issued reactor license, submitted before a licensee may act on that change.
No significant hazards consideration: A finding that a license change would not raise the chance or consequences of an accident already weighed in the plant's safety analysis, a lower bar than a full re-review.
Separative work unit (SWU): A unit measuring the effort required to enrich uranium to a given concentration of U-235; enrichment plants are rated by how many SWU they can produce each year.
Front-end engineering design: A pre-construction planning phase that sets a reactor project's site options, cost estimates and technical basis, well before a construction permit or a final investment decision.
Regulatory
Holtec Clears a Hazard Review on Its Tipped Palisades Fuel
Before: Fuel loading at Palisades, Holtec's Michigan restart project, began August 30; a previously used assembly tilted about 30 degrees inside the core in September, and Holtec filed a license amendment request September 30 proposing a custom tool and a new travel path to retrieve it.
Now: The NRC's public comment period on that request
closed October 8, and the agency's preliminary review found the change involves no significant hazards consideration. That is a procedural finding, not a retrieval authorization: the fuel rods inside the tilted assembly have kept their integrity, and no other assemblies were affected.
Watch: Whether NRC finalizes the amendment before Holtec attempts the retrieval
Construction
Urenco Brings a Sixth Enrichment Cascade Online in New Mexico
Before: Urenco USA began installing eight new centrifuge cascades at its National Enrichment Facility in 2025, targeting 700,000 SWU a year of added capacity on top of existing output.
Now: Urenco
said this week its sixth cascade started production, pushing the expansion past 75% complete; the six running cascades add more than 500,000 SWU a year. The seventh cascade is due later this year, with the eighth, completing the project, in spring 2027.
Watch: Whether the seventh cascade lands on its 2026 target
Technology
NASA and DOE Sign a Framework for Nuclear-Powered Spaceflight
Before: NASA and DOE had cooperated on space reactor work under narrower, older agreements, without one framework spanning design, fuel, testing and launch.
Now: Administrator Jared Isaacman and Secretary Chris Wright
signed "Accelerating American Leadership in Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion" this week, taking effect November 1. It covers reactor development, fuel production, testing, launch integration and operations, and targets a 2028 launch for the Space Reactor-1 Freedom spacecraft toward Mars and a launch-ready lunar surface reactor by 2030.
Watch: Which DOE national labs get named roles as the framework is implemented
 |
Global signal Netherlands Hyundai E&C signed a Westinghouse-led FEED contract this week for two Dutch AP1000 units eyeing 2035. Urenco agreed days later to supply HALEU, advanced reactors’ higher-enriched fuel, to a separate Dutch molten-salt design. |
Question of the week
“The NRC’s comment period closed October 8 on Holtec’s license amendment to retrieve the fuel assembly that tipped inside Palisades. Does the agency issue the final amendment before the end of 2026?
ENTEL’s call
YES
The hazards finding is already made.
Holtec cannot restart until it issues.
Request a beta seat
Know who’s buying in nuclear. Before the RFP posts. Every row traces back to the filing that put it there, so you can check it rather than take our word for it. Free until January 1, no card.
Until next Thursday,
Jace Arnold
Know someone in nuclear who'd find this useful? Send it along.