SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Callan, a leading institutional investment consulting firm, announced the results of its 2025 Nuclear Decommissioning Funding Study, outlining insights into the status of nuclear decommissioning funding in the U.S. Callan found that nuclear decommissioning trust (NDT) fund balances totaled $100 billion in 2024, up almost $20 billion (23.5%) from 2022.
“In our analysis, we saw NDT assets jump as the S&P 500 rose 58% in cumulative terms over the 2023-2024 period,” said Julia Moriarty, study author and co-manager of Callan’s Capital Markets Research group. “With costs rising only 2.3% from 2022, the result was a 17% point rise in the funded status from 82.5% in 2022 to 99.6% in 2024.”
The 2025 study covers 24 investor-owned and 27 public power utilities with an ownership interest in the 94 operating nuclear reactors and 14 of the non-operating nuclear reactors in the U.S. NDTs are created to pay for the costs of decommissioning a closed nuclear power plant.
Key Findings
- NDT fund balances covered in this study rose substantially from $81 billion in 2022 to $100 billion in 2024. The 23.5% increase can be attributed largely to stock market performance.
- Total funding stood at 99.6% in 2024, the highest since the study began in 2007 and a significant increase over the 82.5% level in 2022.
- Investor-owned funds account for approximately 89% of the total NDT fund balance, with public power funds accounting for the remaining 11%.
- Assets as a percentage of costs hit record levels for both investor-owned (103.7%) and public power utilities (76.4%) in 2024.
- Total contributions fell to $163 million in 2024, a $208 million (56%) decrease from $371 million in 2022.
- Total decommissioning cost estimates have risen over $30 billion since 2010. Costs totaled over $100 billion in 2024, a $2.2 billion (2.3%) increase from 2022.
Find the summary blog post and full survey here.
About Callan
Callan was founded as an employee-owned investment consulting firm in 1973. Ever since, we have empowered institutional clients with creative, customized investment solutions backed by proprietary research, exclusive data, and ongoing education. Today, Callan advises clients with more than $3 trillion in total assets, which makes it among the largest independently owned investment consulting firms in the U.S. Callan uses a client-focused consulting model to serve pension and defined contribution plan sponsors, endowments, foundations, independent investment advisers, investment managers, and other asset owners. Callan has six offices throughout the U.S. Learn more at callan.com.
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Anathan
mediarelations@callan.com
415-274-3020
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SOURCE Callan LLC
