- Uranium stocks are soaring as countries signal more openness towards the alternative energy source.
- Belgium recently extended the operating timeline of two of its nuclear power plants amid a global energy crunch.
- Elon Musk applauded the growing friendliness towards nuclear power on Sunday, tweeting "wise actions."
Uranium stocks are on the move as more and more country leaders are appreciating the benefits of nuclear power amid a global energy crisis.
Shares of uranium miner Cameco soared as much as 10% on Monday, while the Global X Uranium ETF was up as much as 7%. Over the past week, Cameco stock has soared 28% while the Uranium ETF jumped nearly 20%.
The potential renaissance in nuclear power comes six months after Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a surge in energy prices as economic sanctions against Russia's oil markets piled up and as Russia slowed its exports of natural gas to Europe to a trickle.
Nuclear power is a clean form of energy production when the uranium waste is properly stored, and its relatively cheap to operate after the power plant has been built. Understanding this predicament, Belgium has become the latest country, joining the US, France, and others, to extend the licenses of two of its nuclear power plants.
And in what could become a major turning point for nuclear power, Japan has signaled an openness to building new power plants more than a decade after a devastating tsunami damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
That nuclear disaster sparked a global movement away from nuclear reactors, with Germany especially moving towards the swift retirement of nuclear power. Now it's dealing with the consequences as electricity prices jump ten-fold in less than a year.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last week that the country would evaluate the potential build of new nuclear power plants and restarting idled plants to prevent its electricity grid from becoming overwhelmed with strong demand and little supply.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is applauding the move back towards nuclear. In response to a Twitter post of a Wall Street Journal article talking about the revitalized nuclear power sector, Musk said "wise actions."
Musk, who is focused on transitioning the world to a greener form of energy production and consumption, also said that fossil fuels are still essential for civilization at an oil and gas event in Norway on Monday.
"Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilization will crumble," Musk said. "One of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced is the transition to sustainable energy and to a sustainable economy. That will take some decades to complete... at this time, we actually need more oil and gas, not less."
As more countries warm to the use of nuclear power, it could be a boon for shares of uranium mining firms tasked with extracting the energy source out of the earth.