Nuclear energy is enjoying a renaissance in the United States and around the world.

The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal to triple America’s nuclear energy capacity by the middle of the century. Japan is reactivating its nuclear fleet with the goal of generating 20% of its electricity through nuclear power by 2040. South Korea is planning to bring two new reactors online by 2038. And all around the world, there are 75 nuclear reactors under construction, with another 120 planned.

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The only issue? It takes a long time to build new nuclear power plants, around five years on average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

However, that’s not an issue for dividend investors who are in their positions for a long time, letting their wealth compound over the years. That’s why some of the best nuclear investments are dividend payers like NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE).

NextEra is a pretty straightforward business. It is a power company, after all. What makes it different is that it operates a large nuclear reactor fleet: seven reactors across four plants in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin and a fifth plant in the works for 2029.

The company also operates other types of clean energy facilities, like wind and solar, along with natural gas. It also owns some existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure. That gives it some nice diversification, but I’m most interested in NextEra’s nuclear capacity, and so is Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

Late in 2025, NextEra announced it would be collaborating with Google to bring Iowa’s Duane Arnold nuclear energy plant back online primarily to power Google data centers in the area. Included in the deal is a 25-year power purchase agreement for Google and an agreement to explore other potential nuclear plant opportunities across the country. When the Duane Arnold facility comes online (scheduled for Q1 2029), it will be NextEra’s fifth nuclear plant.

And NextEra was already doing well before that. 2025 saw the company’s net earnings per share (EPS) grow 28.5%, with an expected EPS compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% through 2035, which the Duane Arnold plant and Google power purchase agreement will certainly help with.

Now, on to the dividend, which is one of the higher yields among nuclear power companies at 2.5% with current prices. The company has grown its dividend every year for the last 32 years as well, which puts it over halfway to Dividend King status. Dividend Kings are companies that have raised their payouts annually for 50 years or more.

It’s also worth noting that these are sometimes rather large increases. The company’s most recent dividend, announced Feb. 13, was a 10% increase year over year. And NextEra is projecting 6% per-year dividend growth through 2028.

Finally, NextEra’s payout ratio is 68.67%, which is high but more than manageable, considering it was sitting at 80 in 2022 and peaked at 94 in 2020. Despite that, NextEra kept increasing its dividend while reining in its payout ratio.

Put all that together, and you have an excellent contender for a nuclear dividend play to let ride for years to come, potentially with a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP).

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James Hires has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

This Nuclear Dividend Stock Could Turn $1,000 Into a Lifetime Income Stream was originally published by The Motley Fool