By 
Issued on behalf of Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp.
As the SMR and small-reactor build-out accelerates and federal directives mandate space-based nuclear deployment, Eagle Nuclear Energy advances the largest conventional, measured and indicated uranium deposit in the United States toward PFS
NEW YORK, May 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA News Group News Commentary — There are two halves to the nuclear renaissance unfolding in 2026, and they have moved in parallel. The first half — the reactor side — has captured most of the headline attention: Small Modular Reactor developers raising capital and signing utility offtake agreements, the White House issuing National Science and Technology Memorandum 3 on April 14, 2026 mandating space-based nuclear deployment by 2028 and lunar reactor deployment by 2030, and AI data center operators publicly evaluating dedicated nuclear power supply contracts to meet load growth that the existing grid simply cannot satisfy.[1] The second half — the fuel side — has moved more quietly, but the implications are arguably larger. Every new reactor built in the United States and across the broader Western alliance will need enriched uranium to operate, and the domestic supply chain that produces that uranium is, at present, a thin shadow of what an expanding reactor fleet will demand.
The United States imports approximately 95% of the uranium it consumes — roughly 50 million pounds per year of uranium— to fuel the world’s largest fleet of nuclear reactors.[2] As of May 1, 2026, the spot uranium price reached approximately $86.55 per pound, up 24% over the trailing twelve months.[3] The supply-demand gap is structural, the price signal has been firming for years, and the policy environment — bipartisan in the U.S. and aligning across the broader Minerals Security Partnership — has continued to move toward favoring domestic production.
Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: NUCL) is positioned at the fuel side of the renaissance through its rights to what it describes as the largest conventional, measured and indicated uranium deposit in the United States: the Aurora Uranium Project, located along the Oregon–Nevada border. The Company began trading on Nasdaq on February 25, 2026, after completing its business combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. II the day prior.[2] Aurora hosts 32.75 million pounds of indicated and 4.98 million pounds of inferred uranium resource under the SK-1300 TRS reporting standard, with the adjacent Cordex deposit providing additional resource-expansion optionality.[2]
The April–May 2026 corporate sequence describes a company executing a focused PFS workstream. On April 1, 2026, Eagle announced its intention to conduct a 27,000-foot drill program at Aurora, designed by resource consultants BBA USA Inc. to address data gaps identified through a Gap Analysis study and advance the project toward a Pre-Feasibility Study.[4] On April 9, the Company signed a Drilling Services Agreement with Fallon, Nevada-based Harris Exploration Drilling & Associates Inc., committing up to three track-mounted core drill rigs to complete the 47-hole program.[5] On May 5, 2026, Eagle announced the commencement of environmental baseline studies in advance of the drill program — the upstream regulatory workstream that supports the federal and state permitting interface for U.S. uranium development. The drill program is scheduled to commence in early July 2026, using two to three rigs over an estimated three- to four-month period.[6] The PFS is targeted for the second half of 2027.[3]
Permitting and resource modelling have been positioned at parallel paths. Eagle on March 18, 2026 selected SLR International Corporation to lead the permitting effort at Aurora — a global mining and environmental consulting firm with structured experience at the U.S. federal and state regulatory interface.[7] On March 10, the Company joined the Uranium Producers of America — a step that aligned Eagle with the broader U.S. domestic uranium policy conversation.[7]
Beyond Aurora itself, Eagle has positioned the Company as building an integrated nuclear energy platform that combines domestic uranium resources with exclusive Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology — a positioning that places the Company within the broader Western nuclear renaissance both on the fuel side and the reactor side simultaneously.[6] The strategic logic of the integrated framing is straightforward: SMRs are expected to be deployed in the late 2020s and through the 2030s, and the fuel cycle supporting them requires a domestic feedstock that is, at present, almost entirely absent from the U.S. supply chain. A developer that holds the rights to the largest conventional U.S. uranium deposit and is simultaneously positioning to integrate SMR technology has built a strategic profile aligned with growing policy and procurement interest in domestic nuclear infrastructure.
The reactor-developer side of the nuclear renaissance has continued to deliver corporate developments that frame the broader market environment Eagle is operating in.
Oklo Inc. (NYSE: OKLO), a designer and developer of advanced fast-fission power plants, has continued to advance its commercial reactor pipeline, with the Company’s positioning around the space nuclear mandate reinforced in April 2026 when CEO and co-founder Jacob DeWitte was identified as having been appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology earlier in the year.[1] Oklo’s fast-fission technology has been a natural focal point for the space nuclear narrative; the Company’s share price moved sharply on the April 14, 2026 federal directive.[1]
NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE: SMR) has continued to advance its design-certified SMR technology — the only SMR design to have received U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certification at the time of writing. The regulatory approval positions NuScale at the front of the U.S. SMR deployment timeline, and the Company has continued to advance discussions across utility customers as the broader U.S. utility sector evaluates deployment pathways for the next reactor build cycle.
BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT), the U.S.’s leading supplier of nuclear components, fuel, and services for government and commercial customers, is a strategic supplier across both the existing U.S. nuclear fleet and the next-generation SMR deployment pipeline. The Company’s positioning as a long-cycle supplier to the broader U.S. nuclear ecosystem has continued to make it one of the more closely watched names in the sector through 2026.
NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE), a microreactor technology company developing ZEUS (a solid-core battery reactor) and ODIN (a low-pressure coolant reactor), has continued to advance both its reactor-design pipeline and its high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fabrication facility plans to supply fuel to the broader nuclear reactor industry. The Company in 2026 has signed a Strategic MOU with Supermicro to power the next generation of AI data centers with advanced nuclear energy — a partnership that captures the AI-data-center-meets-nuclear pairing that has continued to drive sector-wide attention.[8]
The combined reactor-developer and fuel-cycle picture has continued to reinforce the strategic importance of the conventional U.S. uranium asset base that Aurora anchors. As of May 2026, the U.S. domestic uranium production rate is a tiny fraction of consumption, and the new generation of SMRs and microreactors that the White House mandate and the broader federal procurement environment are pulling forward will materially increase demand. The PFS workstream at Aurora — moving on the schedule the Company has outlined — sits at the intersection of those vectors.
The remaining months of 2026 will be defined by drill progress, baseline-study completion, and the permitting interface across federal and state regulators. The Q3 2026 commencement of the 27,000-foot drill program represents the first major operational milestone in the PFS calendar.
Read more about Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp. at: usanewsgroup.com/nucl-profile
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