Hated to Hero

Nuclear Power – From Hated to Hero in 2025

Lost in the whirlwind of tariff news was a surprising success story around nuclear power. Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG) will be in a great position to supply power for data centers and new factories.
Constellation Energy is the U.S.’ largest producer of nuclear power. The company has a capacity of 22.8 gigawatts. That’s more than twice the capacity of its next closest rival, Duke Energy.

This is a strong recovery for a company whose shares fell 50% from January to April.

Constellation has an excellent consumer base. According to the company, it serves 75% of the Fortune 100 companies. And it is positioned to grow with the emerging demand for electricity.

According to Bloomberg, analysts expect power consumption to grow 16% over the next five years. That’s an exceptional growth in an industry that remained nearly flat for a decade.

The demand will come from data centers, electric cars, and reduced demand for fossil fuels. These new consumers require constant energy production, called “base load power”. That’s what coal power plants used to supply in the U.S. Big boilers that burned coal constantly. They generated power 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s impossible to replace that with renewable energy alone. However, nuclear energy is ideal for that role.

Nuclear power faced a strong headwind since Japan’s Fukushimi Daiichi disaster in March 2011. That’s when an earthquake and then tsunami caused one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Many former advocates reversed course. Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan shut down most of the country’s nuclear reactors. In Europe, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy phased out or banned nuclear power.

However, climate change advocates helped turn the narrative on nuclear power. Most scientists understood that Fukushima was an engineering issue. Clearly, building a nuclear power plant in a seismically active seaside requires more planning.

However, the likelihood of a tsunami/earthquake impacting a nuclear power plant in Germany is almost zero. It took over a decade, but nuclear power is coming back. And we need it.
Electricity demand remains a good investment theme for 2025. And it extends beyond the producers. As you can see, the Global X Uranium ETF chart looks very similar to Constellation Energy:

This ETF holds uranium producers, with major uranium miner Cameco making up 22.3% of the fund.

We remain bullish on electricity and uranium. The pendulum will swing all the way back for nuclear power in the next couple of years. From hated and feared to critical power source in the near future.

For the Good,
The Mangrove Investor Team

Numbers You Need to Know

782 billion

U.S. nuclear power plants generated nearly 782 billion kilowatthours of electricity in 2024. (US Department of Energy)

92%

Nuclear power plants operated at full capacity more than 92% of the time in 2023—making it one of the most reliable energy sources in America due to its high availability. (US Department of Energy)

1 Football Field

Nuclear fuel is very dense. All of the used nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. nuclear energy industry over the last 60 years could fit on a football field at a depth of less than 10 yards. (US Department of Energy)

What’s New in Sustainable Investing

100 days of Trump 2.0, climate alliances reposition, and annual proxy season preview

Looking past the first 100 days, we anticipate further actions from the government may continue to challenge climate change efforts. Government offices supporting emerging renewable energy technologies with financial and technical assistance may be next on the chopping block, which may challenge venture investments toward innovative solutions. (UBS)

ESG investments may be fading, but climate risk isn’t

In the first quarter of 2025, global sustainable funds saw record net outflows of US$8.6 billion (bn). European investors, the doyens of sustainability investing, were net sellers for the first time on record in data going back to 2018, withdrawing US$1.2bn in ESG investments. A similar trend was seen in Asian markets. (Institute for Energy Economics)

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