NuScale Power (SMR 2.45%) is making material progress with its business, and Wall Street has rewarded it for its achievements. But it still hasn’t reached one critical milestone. And how you interpret that fact will make a big difference in whether or not you’ll think that NuScale Power is a buy right now.

What does NuScale Power do?

At this moment, NuScale Power is largely a consultant, providing analysis services that generate revenue. But what it really wants to do is build small modular nuclear reactors, also known as SMRs. The consulting work it is providing now is to Romanian power company RoPower, which is trying to reach a final decision on whether it will build a power plant using NuScale’s SMRs.

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SMRs are a new technology in the nuclear power industry, which up until now has featured large, permanently installed reactors constructed on site. These are costly and time consuming to build. SMRs would change the nuclear power model in a big way. The reactor would be built in a factory while the facility is built concurrently, helping to reduce costs and increase speed. They would be small enough to transport to the locations where they were needed and safe enough to be placed relatively close to population centers. They could be a great alternative power source for companies from electric utilities to data center owners.

NuScale has achieved some important milestones. For example, management likes to highlight that the company “remains the only SMR technology company to have received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its SMR technology design.” On that front, NuScale has received approval for an upgraded version of its tech that can provide a higher electricity output than its original model. So not only has its SMR design been approved by the NRC, but it has been approved twice.

The next big step for NuScale

The biggest achievement for NuScale so far, however, was winning a contract to provide design and engineering services for six SMR modules to RoPower. That work is being done in preparation for the customer’s final decision on whether to go ahead with the project, under which those six modules would be linked together to create one large nuclear power plant. RoPower is expected to make the final call on this capital investment in the first half of 2026. The timeline for that decision has been pushed out a bit from its earlier target date: That isn’t unusual in this industry, but it highlights the risks for NuScale Power and its investors.

Right now, NuScale Power is providing consulting services to RoPower to help the utility make the final call on the investment. This is a big deal: NuScale Power is already investing in the production of the parts needed to build the six SMRs that RoPower is expected to buy. And, perhaps even more important, the RoPower deal would be the first commercial sale of NuScale’s SMRs. If the project gets the green light, NuScale will have a customer to use as an example when it’s trying to sell additional SMRs to new customers.

In other words, there is a lot on the line for NuScale, and over the next year or so, investors will learn a lot about its future. Given the roughly 300% increase in NuScale Power’s stock price over the past year, however, it looks like investors have priced in a lot of expected good news. And that creates a problem for investors.

Buy now or wait for the RoPower deal?

Because the company is not profitable, investors can’t use the price-to-earnings ratio to put a valuation on it. Meanwhile, because its sales are so modest, its price-to-sales ratio is a very high 70. Even so, if you’re a fairly aggressive investor and you expect a positive outcome with the RoPower deal, you should consider buying NuScale Power today. If that deal to actually construct and install those six SMRs does go through, the future will look materially brighter for NuScale Power, and likely for its stock, too.

That said, more conservative investors interested in the company would probably be better off waiting for the RoPower deal to actually get finalized. If the RoPower transaction falls apart, NuScale’s stock could slide significantly. While waiting to buy could mean missing out on some of the potential gains, it probably won’t mean missing out on all of them, given the long-term opportunities presented by SMR technology.