NEI Nuclear Notes

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hosted their annual energy conference last Saturday with keynote speakers including MIT's President Susan Hockfield and Duke's CEO James Rogers . The event showcased many panelists including NEI's Vice President Richard Myers . Myers passed along the slide below from one of the panelists John Gilbertson - Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. I would say the slide is pretty self-explanatory. Obviously Wall Street investors aren't bearish on nuclear utilities.

From the New York Post : In a bet on the revival of nuclear energy, Wall Street giants including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are set to move mountains of cash into uranium when it starts trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange next month. The price of uranium has skyrocketed over the past year from around $40 a pound to around $113 as demand has outstripped supply. Goldman and other investors including hedge funds see big opportunities trading uranium because of its high level of volatility. Despite the current volatility, it's important to note that fuel only accounta for a relatively small portion of total operating costs of a nuclear power plant -- one of the reasons nuclear energy can help bring price stability to an energy portfolio.