NLR vs URNJ

NLRAVanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF

URNJDSprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF

In short

NLR The original nuclear ETF, listed since 2007. NLR owns the whole chain (uranium miners, reactor builders, nuclear utilities, and the equipment firms serving them) at a lower fee than most of its rivals.

URNJ The high-octane end of the uranium trade: roughly 40 small, micro and mid-cap miners and explorers, with the household-name producers left out. Sprott, a uranium house, co-built the index with Nasdaq.

Stated mandate

NLR The fund seeks to track the MVIS Global Uranium & Nuclear Energy Index before fees and expenses. The index covers companies involved in uranium mining, nuclear-facility and reactor construction, engineering and maintenance, nuclear electricity generation, and nuclear-industry equipment, technology, or services.

URNJ The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Uranium Miners Index.

Why people hold it

• NLR At 0.52% a year it undercuts the typical uranium and nuclear fund, and both URA (0.69%) and URNM (0.75%).
• Not just diggers: the index spans uranium mining, reactor construction and engineering, nuclear electricity generation, and the equipment and services suppliers behind them.vaneck.com
• A purity screen keeps it honest: index members must draw at least half their revenue from uranium and nuclear energy, so no loosely related mega-cap filler.marketvector.com
• Trading since August 2007, well before URA (2010) and the newer nuclear funds. It has lived through the theme's full boom-to-bust-to-revival cycle.stockanalysis.com

• URNJ Junior-only by design. The index targets mid-, small- and micro-cap uranium mining companies globally, the exploration and development end rather than the big established producers.sprottetfs.com
• Sprott is a uranium specialist, not a tourist. It co-developed this benchmark with Nasdaq rather than renting a generic thematic index off the shelf.sprottetfs.com
• Roughly 40 names and a few hundred million dollars in assets: the junior theme comes through without the whole fund resting on one or two stocks.

Worth knowing

• NLR Around 29 holdings in a single theme. Concentration cuts both ways, and one company's news can swing the fund.
• Utilities and industrials in the mix soften the direct link to uranium prices that a miners-only fund like URNM gives you.
• Global by design, so foreign listings, currency moves, and overseas policy decisions all feed into returns.vaneck.com

• URNJ Cost is the toll for the small-cap end: 0.80% a year, above the 0.75% typical of uranium funds and well above broader nuclear options like NLR at 0.52%.
• Sprott's own documents call the fund non-diversified and say investors should be willing to accept "a high degree of volatility" and the possibility of significant losses.sprottetfs.com
• It sits toward the back of our uranium and nuclear group, mostly on price and on how much share-price risk the junior end of the mining chain carries.

Full NLR profile⁠

Full URNJ profile⁠