NuScale Power is the only U.S. company that can legally deploy a small modular reactor plant today if it finds a customer, but that edge has not stopped smr stock from sliding roughly 70% over the last six months. The nuclear technology company, best known for its light-water reactor design, carries a market value of about $4 billion, or roughly a third of Oklo's.
The latest milestone came in May 2025, when the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved NuScale's 77-megawatt SMR design. That followed an earlier approval for a 50 MW design. The company already had the kind of regulatory green light that rivals still lack, yet it has not generated revenue from an SMR sale.
That matters because NuScale's business case depends on turning approval into actual projects, not just paperwork. Its technology uses light-water reactor technology, the same broad approach used in roughly 96% of nuclear reactors operating today, where water cools the reactor and helps moderate the reaction. Oklo, by contrast, is pursuing microreactors cooled with liquid sodium, a system that has not been tested commercially in the U.S.
NuScale's first planned project, the Carbon Free Power Project, was canceled due to rising costs, a reminder that regulatory success does not guarantee a working market. The company's planned project in Romania is expected to use six modules to generate about 460 megawatts of power, but the estimated price tag could reach roughly $7 billion. That makes the gap between approval and revenue the central issue for investors watching smr stock.
For now, NuScale remains the rare SMR developer with a design approved by the NRC, and that status is the foundation of the bullish case. The harder question is whether any utility or government buyer will move fast enough to turn that approval into a commercial order before the market loses patience.