Merrill Lynch Endorsement

One of the prerequisites for new nuclear power plants to become a reality in the U.S. is the backing of Wall Street. Antinuclear groups like to say that nuclear power isn't economical, but in the past year evidence of support from the financial community has been accumulating. Most recently, in its report "Cleaning the Environment" issued last month, Merrill Lynch said:

Utilities with sizable holdings of emission-free nuclear power plants are well-positioned for gains through the end of the decade as a result of more stringent air quality regulations that will affect other forms of electricity generation.

More of what the company said about nuclear is here.

Time to check my investment portfolio...

Comments

Anonymous said…

Old plant/new plant problem again Lisa. Why don't you call Merrill and ask them what they think of utilities financing a new plant build?

I'm sure you'll get a rather different investor perspective than the one they gave for utilities milking the low operating costs at existing plants that have already written off massive capital costs either through past bankruptcies or stranded costs; or recovered most of them prior to deregulation.

January 15, 2006 at 12:06 AM

Anonymous said…

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of this report?

January 17, 2006 at 3:43 AM

Anonymous said…

With more than 10 bloggers on this site, you'd think that one of you could actually monitor the comments thread and provide poster #2 with info on the report you just cited. Eric - isn't this blog a big part of your job? How about some follow-up?

January 23, 2006 at 1:52 PM

Eric McErlain said…

In general, monitoring individual threads is up to the person who writes the original post. However, please note that everyone who writes for NEI Nuclear Notes is a volunteer, and is employed full time at NEI or one of its member companies.

That being said, the report in question is available for $4.95 U.S. from Platts.

January 23, 2006 at 2:53 PM

Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog