Best Uranium ETFs Compared (2026)

60-second answer: The main uranium funds differ by what they hold, and that choice matters more than fees. The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust holds the metal itself. The Global X URA fund is the broadest miner basket, Sprott's URNM concentrates on pure-play miners, and URNJ targets juniors. Canada's HURA offers TSX-listed uranium exposure, while NLR and NUKZ blend miners with utilities and reactor companies. Compare them live on the ETFs hub. Not investment advice.

A uranium ETF buys you the whole sector in one click. That convenience matters in a market where a single explorer can crater on one bad drill result. The funds are not interchangeable, though. Some hold physical uranium, some hold miners, some hold nuclear utilities, and their fees range from 0.35% for the cheapest index blend to just over 1% for the leveraged product.

Every uranium ETF compared

Fourteen funds offer uranium or nuclear exposure on North American exchanges, from multi-billion-dollar flagships to sub-$50M newcomers. Each ticker links to a live fund page with current assets under management.

Fee and holdings figures come from issuer fund pages and fact sheets as of August 29, 2026. Assets under management move daily, so this page shows them in the live table at the end of the article rather than in fixed text.

Physical uranium trusts (SRUUF and U.UN)

The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust holds uranium oxide in licensed storage facilities: about 81.7 million pounds as of late August 2026, worth roughly $7.4 billion. SRUUF is the US over-the-counter listing and U.UN is the TSX listing, but they are units of the same trust. Because the trust owns metal rather than companies, its value tracks the uranium spot price with no mining, dilution, or cost risk.

Two details are worth knowing before buying. First, the trust often trades at a premium or discount to its net asset value, which you can track daily on the Sprott page. Buying at a large premium means paying more than the underlying uranium is worth. Second, the 0.71% management expense ratio is no longer the bargain of the group; NLR and URA both charge less, though they hold very different assets. For how the trust works mechanically, see the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust guide, and for the wider universe of metal-backed vehicles, the physical holdings page and how to buy physical uranium.

Broad uranium miner ETFs (URA and HURA)

Global X Uranium ETF (URA) is the largest uranium equity fund at $6.5 billion, holding 57 names across miners, developers, and the fuel cycle. Per Global X, Cameco alone is about 22% of the fund, with the Sprott physical trust and NexGen Energy around 6% each. Its 0.69% fee sits below both Sprott equity funds. Breadth cuts both ways: URA captures the whole sector but dilutes the pure uranium bet with fuel-cycle and reactor-adjacent names. The URA guide covers the fund in detail, and the uranium stocks screener shows how its top holdings trade individually.

HURA, from Global X Canada, is often described as the Canadian URA, but it tracks a different index: the Solactive Global Uranium Pure-Play Index, which mixes miners with physical uranium vehicles. It is much smaller at about C$224 million and carries the highest fee of the group at a 0.98% MER. Its draw is practical: TSX-listed, CAD-denominated uranium exposure in one ticker.

Concentrated and junior miner ETFs (URNM and URNJ)

Sprott's two equity funds trade breadth for intensity. URNM holds just 25 positions in pure-play miners and keeps the Sprott physical trust as its largest holding, about 13% of the fund per Sprott's holdings data. That blend gives you miners plus a slug of the metal in one ticker. URNJ goes further out on the risk curve with 40 junior miners and developers tracked by the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Uranium Miners Index. When uranium runs, juniors have historically outpaced the majors; when sentiment sours, they fall further and stay down longer.

The practical question is usually URA versus URNM: broad and cheaper versus concentrated with physical. The URA vs URNM comparison puts the two side by side with live data, URNM vs URNJ covers the concentration-versus-juniors choice, and the three-way guide walks through all three Sprott-and-Global-X equity options.

Nuclear energy ETFs (NLR and NUKZ)

NLR and NUKZ answer a different question. Rather than betting on the uranium price, they own the nuclear power buildout: utilities, reactor builders, and service companies alongside miners. Per VanEck's June 2026 fund profile, NLR is roughly half uranium miners, 30% utilities, and 20% nuclear industrials, and its 0.52% net fee (waived down through at least May 2027) is the lowest in this table. NUKZ leans harder into the buildout theme with reactor developers, construction, and fuel companies at a 0.85% fee.

The result is steadier behavior: VanEck's own comparison shows its nuclear index with materially lower volatility and drawdown than a uranium-miners index over the past three years, at the cost of less upside when uranium spikes. If your thesis is nuclear power growth rather than a uranium supply squeeze, these funds express it better. See uranium ETFs vs nuclear energy ETFs for the distinction, the nuclear ETF guide for the full nuclear field, and the NLR vs NUKZ comparison for the head-to-head.

Newer and specialist funds (URAN, UX, RCTR, SMRF, TNUK)

The 2024-2026 launch wave added five specialist options, all far smaller than the flagships above. URAN, from Themes, is the cheapest fund in the table at 0.35% and blends 43 miners, utilities, and equipment names via the BITA Global Uranium and Nuclear Select Index. UX, from Roundhill, is the first US-listed fund aimed at the uranium price itself: it holds swaps referencing the Sprott trust and Yellow Cake rather than metal, which adds counterparty and reference-vehicle risk the physical trust does not have. RCTR tracks Bloomberg's nuclear index, weighting 45 companies by expected nuclear revenue. SMRF and TNUK are actively managed: SMRF targets small modular reactors with a technology sleeve, TNUK picks across the whole value chain. With newer small funds, check assets and trading volume before sizing a position; a fund that stays tiny can close and return capital at an inconvenient time.

What about leveraged uranium ETFs?

One now trades: URAA, Direxion's 2x daily uranium & nuclear fund. Like all daily-reset leveraged products it is a trading instrument rather than a portfolio holding: volatility decay erodes returns over any holding period longer than days. How that decay works, and when these products make sense, is covered in the leveraged uranium ETF guide.

How to choose

Start from the thesis, then pick the structure that expresses it:

• "The uranium price goes up." The physical trust (SRUUF or U.UN) expresses this cleanly, with premium and discount as the main complication.
• "Miners will earn more as prices rise." URA for breadth, URNM for concentration plus a physical sleeve.
• "Juniors will get re-rated or acquired." URNJ, sized for the drawdowns that come with it.
• "Nuclear power keeps growing regardless of spot." NLR for the cheapest diversified version, NUKZ for the aggressive buildout version.
• "I want to trade in CAD on the TSX." U.UN for the metal, HURA for equities.
• "I want uranium-price exposure in a regular ETF wrapper." UX, accepting swap-based structure risk.
• "SMRs specifically are the story." SMRF, the only fund organized around that thesis.

Fees matter at the margin, and the 0.35% to 1.07% range compounds over the years, but paying 0.75% for the exposure you want beats paying 0.52% for one you do not. If you are new to the sector, how to invest in uranium covers where ETFs fit among stocks and physical options, the glossary defines terms like NAV and MER, and the ETFs hub keeps the live comparison.

Buying through Vanguard or Fidelity

Neither Vanguard nor Fidelity offers its own uranium fund, but all of the US-listed tickers above trade commission-free through their standard brokerage accounts. The details, including what to check before ordering, are in uranium ETFs at Vanguard and Fidelity.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best uranium ETF? No single fund wins for everyone. The Sprott physical trust tracks the metal, URA gives the broadest miner exposure, URNM concentrates on pure plays, URNJ targets juniors, and NLR or NUKZ suit a nuclear-power thesis over a uranium-price one.

What is the difference between a physical uranium trust and a uranium miners ETF? The trust holds uranium oxide, so it tracks the spot price directly. Miner ETFs hold shares in companies, which adds operating leverage in both directions plus company-specific risk.

Do uranium ETFs pay dividends? Some equity funds pass through small distributions, but uranium is not an income sector. Most returns come from price appreciation, if any.

Are uranium ETFs safer than individual uranium stocks? They spread single-company risk across dozens of names, but the whole sector still moves together and can fall sharply.

Is there a leveraged uranium ETF? Yes: URAA, Direxion's 2x daily uranium & nuclear fund. Daily rebalancing erodes returns over longer holding periods, so it suits short-term trades rather than buy-and-hold positions.

Which uranium ETFs can Canadians buy on the TSX? U.UN for the Sprott physical trust and HURA for a CAD-denominated equity basket. The US-listed funds are also accessible through most Canadian brokers.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Always do your own research.