Nuclear Wipeout: These 5 Nuclear Stocks Are Now Down 44.3% to 82.2%. Time to Buy?

A lot of industries have underperformed over the past year, but the nuclear industry has been absolutely clobbered.

Despite a friendly presidential administration and growing concerns about electricity supply , nuclear stocks have notched some of the worst performances in the market. And next-generation nuclear stocks have been among the hardest hit. But that could be about to change.

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Let's check out five of the worst performers in the nuclear industry and see if they look like buys at these lower prices.

The youngest company on the list is also the best performer (if you can even call a 44.3% drop from its IPO price the "best").

Standard Nuclear (NYSE: STDN) made its Nasdaq debut less than a month ago, and its share price quickly plunged. Even so, the start-up is still valued at $1.4 billion, which seems high for a company that only brought in $593,802 in revenue in Q1.

The company currently operates the only U.S. manufacturing facility capable of producing TRISO nuclear fuel at an industrial scale. TRISO fuel consists of encapsulate poppy seed-sized uranium kernels, which are heat-resistant and meltdown-proof. Standard Nuclear plans to supply small modular reactor (SMR) companies with TRISO fuel, but in order for it to grow into its valuation, it needs the SMR industry to take off.

TRISO fuel is also key to the fortunes of the second-youngest company on our list, X-Energy (NASDAQ: XE), which had its IPO in April. The $7.5 billion company is currently developing a nuclear fuel campus in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to manufacture its patented version of TRISO fuel, called TRISO-X.