Best Uranium ETFs

The case for uranium rests on a revival in nuclear power. Electricity demand is climbing, led by AI data centers that need firm, round-the-clock power, and nuclear is one of the few carbon-free sources that delivers it at scale. That has turned existing reactors from stranded assets into prized, contracted capacity, spurred interest in small modular reactors (SMRs), and pushed several governments toward extending reactor lives and building new ones. Uranium is the fuel underneath all of it, and supply is concentrated in a handful of countries, so demand growth can meet a slow-moving supply base.

What could go wrong is just as important. Uranium is a small, thinly traded commodity, so its price can swing violently on a single mine restart, production cut, or policy shift. The SMR and new-build story is partly a bet on projects that are still being developed, which can slip or stall. Miner equities tend to amplify the underlying uranium move in both directions, and the funds here are concentrated rather than diversified. None of that is a prediction about where uranium prices go next; it is the reason these funds are usually treated as a small, high-volatility slice rather than a core holding.

URA (Global X Uranium) is the largest, oldest, and most liquid US-listed uranium ETF, and it is the default for anyone who wants one-ticker exposure to the theme. Rather than holding miners alone, it spreads across roughly 50-plus names spanning uranium mining and exploration plus the broader nuclear fuel cycle, including nuclear-component makers and newer nuclear-technology firms. The portfolio is concentrated at the top, led by Cameco at over 20% of assets, with names like Kazatomprom, NexGen Energy, Uranium Energy, and newer additions such as Oklo reflecting the nuclear-revival theme.

URA charges around 0.69% and behaves like a thematic commodity bet: its price moves closely with uranium prices and mining-equity sentiment, so it is volatile. Its advantages are breadth and liquidity, which is why it is often used as the starting point for uranium exposure. You can dig into it as an ETF on its own page. This is descriptive, not a recommendation to buy any particular fund.

The Sprott funds are the tighter, purer bets on uranium miners. URNM (Sprott Uranium Miners) holds roughly 30 uranium-mining companies, anchored again by Cameco at around 20%, and it also holds units of the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, which gives the fund some direct physical-uranium exposure inside an equity portfolio. It charges around 0.75%. Compared with URA, URNM is more concentrated on miners and carries less of the broader fuel-cycle and component exposure, so it tracks the miners more directly.

URNJ (Sprott Junior Uranium Miners) goes a step further down the size scale, holding mid-, small-, and micro-cap junior miners at around 0.80%. Junior miners are smaller, often earlier-stage companies, so URNJ is generally more volatile than URNM and more sensitive to both the uranium price and to individual project outcomes. It can climb more than the larger-miner funds in a strong market and fall harder in a weak one. Both are pure bets on mining companies, which carry operating, financing, and country risk that physical uranium does not.

NLR (VanEck Uranium and Nuclear) is the broadest of the funds here and the cheapest at around 0.56%. Instead of concentrating on miners, it holds roughly 30 companies across the nuclear landscape, including nuclear utilities and operators of existing reactors, reactor and equipment builders, and uranium miners. That makes it less of a direct uranium-price bet and more of a diversified play on the nuclear-power theme as a whole, with steadier utility cash flows balancing the more speculative names. If you want nuclear exposure that is not purely tied to the uranium spot price, NLR is the broadest option of the group.

For exposure to the physical metal itself, the main vehicle is the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, whose units trade over the counter as SRUUF. It is a closed-end trust, not an ETF, and it holds physical uranium in the form of uranium oxide and uranium hexafluoride rather than mining shares. Because it trades over the counter and is closed-end, it can trade at a premium or discount to the value of the uranium it holds, and spreads can be wider than a listed ETF. URNM holds some of this trust inside its portfolio, so a miner fund can give indirect physical exposure without buying the trust directly.

Costs are approximate expense ratios as of early 2026; verify the current figure on each issuer's site. URA is the broad, liquid miner-plus-fuel-cycle fund; URNM and URNJ are purer miner bets, with URNJ the most volatile; NLR is the broadest and cheapest, reaching into nuclear utilities and reactor builders; and SRUUF is a physical uranium trust rather than an ETF. For how a uranium sleeve sits next to the wider nuclear-power story, including reactor operators and small modular reactor developers, see our nuclear and SMR theme page.

The hard part of uranium is not picking the fund; URA, URNM, URNJ, and NLR all track variations of the same theme, and the choice mostly comes down to how broad versus pure you want the exposure and how much volatility you can stomach. The harder question is whether a uranium sleeve belongs in your portfolio at all, how large a slice makes sense given how volatile these funds are, and whether you want broad miners, junior miners, or the wider nuclear mix. That depends on what you already own and what you are trying to do, which is where an AI assistant that can reason over your real holdings is useful.

That is where Walnut fits. It connects your existing brokerage through SnapTrade so you can ask, in plain language through Claude, ChatGPT, or a built-in assistant, how a uranium fund like URA would fit alongside what you already hold, how much a position in URNM or NLR moves with the rest of your portfolio, and how these funds are doing against the market. Walnut keeps your accounts read-only, so a uranium position is only ever added when you place that order. As something that informs rather than advises, it sizes the question of a uranium sleeve against your real holdings instead of recommending one, because Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Uranium funds sort cleanly by what they hold. URA is the broad, liquid one, spreading across miners and the nuclear fuel cycle at around 0.69%. URNM and URNJ are the pure miner bets, with URNM concentrated on larger miners plus some physical uranium and URNJ reaching into smaller, more volatile juniors. NLR is the broadest and cheapest at around 0.56%, balancing miners with nuclear utilities and reactor builders. For the physical metal, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SRUUF) is a trust rather than an ETF.

Whichever route, the honest framing is the same: uranium is a small, concentrated, commodity-linked market, and these funds are volatile, which is why they are usually sized as a small thematic slice rather than a core holding. From a connected account you can dig into URA as an ETF, or compare a uranium sleeve against the rest of your portfolio. Holdings, fees, and availability change; treat the specifics here as a starting point and confirm on each provider's site before deciding. For the full category map, see our best ETF in every category guide.