NuScale Power Stock Falls 70% in 6 Months. Here's Why the Nuclear Energy Company Faces Headwinds.

NuScale Power(NYSE: SMR) has recently started to move up, along with several other nuclear energy companies. The reason has been increased chatter about establishing nuclear reactors in outer space.

The U.S. government says it wants to send those reactors into orbit by 2028 and have them on the moon by 2030. Some believe NuScale is primed to win a contract because of its small modular reactors (SMRs), which could be developed faster and at lower cost than traditional reactors. NuScale may also have an edge in winning potential contracts, as it has the only SMR technology design approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

This latest push for reactors in space could certainly be bullish for NuScale's long-term prospects, but shares have dropped by 70% over the past six months for a reason.

Image source: Getty Images.

The nuclear story is still developing

With its design approval, NuScale has an early advantage over other companies working on similar technology. To extend its lead even further, it currently has over 700 patents granted or pending patents across 21 countries.

Still, the market for what NuScale offers is expected to be small until these reactors are up and running, as NuScale has yet to build any commercial reactors.

According to Grand View Research, the global SMR market was valued at $6.5 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to $10.6 billion by 2033. Precedence Research has different timelines, projecting that the market will be worth $8.1 billion in 2026 and $17.3 billion by 2035.

Also, we can look at projections for power needs in space. The global space power supply market size is expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights.

The takeaway from those forecasts is that SMR technology is a small market now, and its potential market value is expected to be constrained over the next few years until the technology advances and small reactors are up and running at a large scale.

There is still upside

Taking a step back from the short-term picture, there could still be significant upside ahead for NuScale if investors are patient and give the market time to develop. Currently, nuclear energy is the fourth-largest global source of electricity for data centers, accounting for 15% of the supply. More and more data centers are expected to be built, and nuclear energy is expected to become even more important in the U.S. by the 2030s.

And the space market could be a budding, long-term revenue catalyst if everything comes together, and NuScale wins a contract and successfully deploys its reactors. That could lead to more contracts, allowing it to become a go-to source for providing power in space as more missions are launched. Investors will need to keep an eye on how Donald Trump's December 2025 executive order that includes a goal of "enabling near-term utilization of space nuclear power by deploying nuclear reactors on the Moon and in orbit, including a lunar surface reactor ready for launch by 2030" plays out.

Patience is key

It makes sense to strategically position your portfolio to get ahead of emerging trends to make sure you're at the right place at the right time to capture the most upside. Of course, finding the trends that are going to roar to success is no easy feat.

For NuScale investors, the most important thing to understand is that there's still a lot that needs to happen for it to take off. The SMR market may take longer to develop than most people are anticipating. Fitting into that narrative, NuScale is unprofitable, and, as mentioned earlier, has yet to build a commercial reactor.

Even with this recent rally, NuScale's stock price is still down over 70% in the last six months and it has underperformed the S&P 500 over the last five years. NuScale could still fit into a portfolio, but it should be treated as a smaller, speculative position.

Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.