NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) has shed 31% over the past month, even as the S&P 500 managed a 1.8% gain during the same period, with no specific company news driving the decline.
Peer nuclear energy firm Oklo also struggled during that stretch, falling 15.0% over the same month, suggesting broader weakness across the small modular reactor space.
The steepest single decline NuScale has recorded since going public came between July and December 2023, when rising bond yields pushed the stock down 72% while the S&P 500 dropped just 9.5%.
Across five separate market shocks since its 2020 public debut, NuScale fell an average of 40.2%, roughly three times the S&P 500’s average loss of 13.4% during those same periods.
The 2025 tariff shock produced a 40% decline for the stock, placing it almost exactly at that historical average, while the longer-term damage from peak to trough has been far more severe.
From its 2022 peak to its 2024 low, NuScale stock lost 87%, though the company has historically recovered to pre-shock highs, with a median recovery time of 4.2 months from the low.
The longest recovery came after the 2022 inflation shock, when investors waited 21.0 months for the stock to return to its prior high, underlining the patience required to hold this name.
On the question of financial staying power, management stated on its August 5, 2026 earnings call that NuScale held approximately $1.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of the end of June.
Operations consumed $0.8 billion in cash over the last twelve months, meaning the current cash stockpile provides more than two years of runway at that pace, and the company carries almost no debt.
Revenue, however, has collapsed, with just $0.1 million recorded in the quarter ended June 30, 2026, compared to $8.1 million in the same quarter a year earlier, a drop management attributed to the completion of engineering design work for the RoPower project in late 2025.
The operating loss over the last twelve months reached $0.7 billion for a company the market currently values at $2.8 billion, and the share count has risen 405.4% over the past three years.
The most closely watched catalyst remains a signed commercial contract, which management identified as the primary milestone for the business on the August 5 call.
NuScale partner ENTRA1 is currently in active discussions with the Tennessee Valley Authority toward a definitive power purchase agreement, with management describing those talks as progressing but offering no firm timeline.
When pressed on what obstacles remained, management said only that it was encouraged by the ongoing conversations, stopping short of providing any specifics on the path to closing.
In Romania, the RoPower project aims to deploy six NuScale power modules at a former coal plant site, though a newly forming government there had not yet given the green light to finalize contract agreements as of the August 5 call.
Management also declined to offer guidance on operating costs for coming quarters, leaving investors with limited visibility into the company’s near-term financial trajectory.
Debt represents just a fraction of NuScale’s capital structure, a contrast to the broader S&P 500 where debt equals 21.4% of market value, giving the company financial flexibility even as losses mount.
The core risk for investors remains concentration in a single pre-revenue company that has yet to convert years of development work and investor capital into a binding commercial agreement.
