Introducing the Finance Strategic Summit, World Nuclear Symposium

1. What can we expect from Finance Strategic Summit? 

As the nuclear industry enters a new era of global expansion, the Finance Strategic Summit will bring together senior leaders from the nuclear and finance communities to explore the significant opportunities for investment across the entire nuclear value chain. The Summit will also address the specific challenges of financing nuclear growth and highlight the role of nuclear energy in a balanced energy portfolio. 

A key focus for the industry is to support the development of a clear investment framework with standardized products, aimed at securing an estimated $150 billion in annual investment needed to meet global policy goals by 2050. The Summit also seeks to create a unique forum for dialogue and knowledge exchange, sharing best practices between the nuclear industry and the finance community to accelerate investment in the growing nuclear pipeline. 

A key outcome of the Summit is to build support for the development of a roadmap to mainstream finance for the nuclear industry. This roadmap aims to help investors seize opportunities by supporting positive investment decisions through a clearer understanding of the market and the financial tools available to them. 

2. What are the big issues that will be discussed? 

The nuclear industry is making headlines again, featuring prominently in the global energy, industrial, and energy security policies of over 2/3rds of the world’s population and more than 60 countries.  

A key question is whether the ambitious goal of tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050 can be translated into the rapid scaling of nuclear projects worldwide — leading to sustained risk and cost reductions through the economic expansion of the nuclear industrial base and technological innovation. How can the convergence of energy markets with political and social agendas be transformed into investable projects? 

The nature of nuclear investment is also being re-evaluated as an essential new class of energy infrastructure. 

On the development and financial front lines, in assessing new projects, the focus is shifting from technical readiness to financial readiness, highlighting the need for screening and risk acceptance criteria within and across the financial community.  

Finally, a critical concern is the adequacy of the existing channels in the financial markets (including government and potential multilateral banks) to deliver the estimated $150 billion annually needed for new nuclear capacity on a least-cost basis. Discussions will focus on striking a sustainable balance between private and public sector support. 

3. Why participate in the Finance Strategic Summit? 

Delegates should come away with a deeper understanding of why investors are taking a fresh look at nuclear energy in the context of reliability, security and affordability megatrends. They will hear directly from financial institutions about enablers to reduce transaction times and will learn how Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are engaging with the industry in their quest to help drive global growth with limited taxpayer-backed resources. The program will also explore Public-Private Partnership frameworks and the increasing involvement of corporate and industrial energy users' investment in new nuclear. 

4. Who is speaking at the event? 

Prominent representatives from a diverse group of financial institutions will be speaking and engaging in exchanges directly with nuclear industry leaders. The former includes the World Bank, EBRD and West Africa Development Bank, as well as Brookfield, BNP Paribas, UBS, CIBC, JP Morgan, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Moodys. The industry side of this unique dialogue includes GE Vernova, EDF, GBE-N, Vattenfall, Westinghouse, SMR developers and the nuclear fuel industry. The event's sponsor is Uranium Energy Corp, with President and CEO Amir Adnani featured as a top speaker. 

5. What will happen next? 

We plan to continue this vital exchange of knowledge and dialogue between the nuclear and finance sectors. At the Association, we aim to facilitate ongoing discussions and position ourselves as a critical bridge—connecting key stakeholders to advance timely final investment decisions (FID) on competitive nuclear projects around the world. 

In June 2025, we held the first session of the Financing Nuclear Briefing Series (FNBS), designed to foster greater understanding of the challenges, share knowledge, and promote best practices around annual investment in nuclear projects. The next event in the series will take place in early October, once again at a central London location. We then plan to host subsequent events in locations around the world to support a truly global approach. If you’re interested in collaborating with us to deliver an event, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

Alongside our briefing series, we aim to work with the nuclear and financial communities to develop an Investment Guide for the nuclear value chain. This guide will inform investors about the opportunities and pathways for investing in nuclear as an energy asset class. 

We continue to seek support for the goal of at least tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. If this is something your organisation can support, please get in touch at pippa.eames@world-nuclear.org. You’ll be joining a growing number of energy users, financial institutions, and governments already backing this ambition.