Nuclear Revival Spurs CME to Move Ahead on Physical Uranium Contracts

The nuclear power boom is prompting CME Group Inc. to move ahead with a new futures contract backed by physical supplies of uranium, a key fuel source.

To that end, the exchange is close to finalizing a storage arrangement for the radioactive material with ConverDyn, a 50-50 joint venture between Solstice Advanced Materials Inc. and General Atomics, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal documents are still undergoing a final legal review, and the arrangement is expected to be completed by year-end, although there’s no guarantee, the person said.

Under the proposed arrangement, Solstice would manage inventories of uranium concentrate for CME Group at its Metropolis Works facility in Illinois, while ConverDyn would handle the associated accounting, said the person, who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public.

“We are very confident that outside capital will participate in this new pricing mechanism for uranium,” said John Perdew, co-global head of nuclear fuels at the brokerage TP ICAP, noting the physical contract would be a springboard to develop options and finance structured capital market projects. “This is the beginning of what we hope is a robust transformation of the way the uranium fuel cycle prices itself and measures risk.”

Uranium demand is surging as nuclear power makes a global comeback, propelled by the race to build out data centers and a growing appetite for reliable energy. Governments are pursuing sweeping expansions of atomic power, but years of underinvestment have left uranium supply struggling to catch up amid a looming supply squeeze. This mismatch is intensifying the race to secure the fuel needed to power the atomic energy revival.

A physically backed uranium contract by CME would join a relatively small market of investment products offering direct exposure to the nuclear fuel. The roughly $7.5 billion Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, the world’s largest physical uranium fund, holds more than 81 million pounds of uranium oxide and trades in Toronto, while London-listed Yellow Cake Plc owns about 24 million pounds of the material.

The proposed contract would create a physical alternative to CME’s thinly traded existing cash-settled UxC uranium contract.

Uranium spot prices have more than tripled over the past six years and have climbed more than 10% in 2026 to over $90 a pound as of Tuesday, after a volatile run that saw prices top $100 in early 2024 and again this year.

Solstice’s Metropolis Works is the only commercial-scale uranium conversion facility in the US. It processes the yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, the form used in the enrichment stage of the nuclear-fuel cycle.