Of course, we cannot truly recommend stocks in any company, nuclear or otherwise, since, first, doing so would fall into sketchy ethical waters and, second, we're at best ninnies at understanding the stock market and its movements - not that large careers haven't been made on Wall Street regardless.
However, following the money when it comes to companies investing in nuclear energy and its infrastructure seems to be paying dividends lately. Here is Bloomberg reporting on Toshiba's stock rise:
Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest supplier of reactors and chips, rose to the highest in more than a month in Tokyo trading after saying it's in talks with two U.S. utilities to build nuclear power stations.
[...]
Toshiba is headed for the biggest two-day gain since July 2003 on news it's negotiating the multibillion-dollar reactor deal with Scana Corp. and Southern Co. The shares rose 7 percent yesterday after Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said it will delay production of flash-memory chips, easing oversupply fears.
And here is the Times of London on British Energy:
Shares in British Energy climbed more than 6 per cent on Friday in expectation of a £9 billion bid for the nuclear generator from EDF, the French electricity giant which is Europe's biggest energy company.
Hard to say if this is even such good news since investors find peculiar reasons to punish as well as reward companies, but at the very least, it suggests that nuclear energy isn't frightening investors and, as a bonus, adds another quiver to the bow when the anti-nuke mob grumps about the cost of building new plants.
Comments
Besides, there is a lot of work to do and much of that will be done in the US by US engineers.
Even GE Nuclear prided itself on being a global sourcing company. Their Lungmen ABWRs had vessels from Japan, pumps from Scotland and Germany and Japan, ASME pipes from the US, control panels from Canada, etc, etc. Was the uranium to be dug from Russian soil?
Why has the US business community lost interest over the years in nuclear power? The answer is low profit margins. American business flocks to profits, as it should. One can argue about planning time horizons and the evil of quarterly profit discipline but if profit opportunities exist, Americans will pursue them. Toshiba is seeing the rewards of its long standing commitment to and investments in nuclear. It doesn't really matter where the company you work for is based so long as they are ethical and deliver.
Joe Somsel