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Go Overweight Uranium and Fertilizer, Underweight Commodities and Base Metals - RBC

Obama's nuke disarming is a major concern. He could single handedly kill Uranium mining investments--and maybe already has--through additional downblending of Russian weapons grade material ( Megatons to Megawatts Part 2).

Regarding GE's announced interest in recycling spent fuel (US had the lead until Jimmy Carter cancelled the program in late 70's), this is basically a replication of what AREVA is currently doing in France. The technology is definitely proven --- but don't count on GE. In the 70's GE designed and built ~40 % of the world's operating nuclear reactors-- they were pioneers. While I prefer PWR technology (Westinghouse in particular), GE was a major force in the industry with highly regarded engineering and technical expertise. Post TMI they pretty much abandoned nuclear power and let the French and Japanese take over. GE was more content to "diversify" into financial deals, credit cards, movies, television stations, etc. GE technology became a step child. The current nuclear "renaissance" is being led by AREVA (France), Toshiba (Japan) and Russia. These people are signing new nuclear deals nearly every week. GE is in last place. Do they have a single verified order that hasn't been cancelled? If you want finance, derivatives, CDO's, CDS's, credit cards, movies, television producers, theme parks and who knows what---be sure to buy GE. If you are looking for the nuclear renaissance--short GE. Their committment to nuclear is so tiny relative to the other components that there is no investment opportunity.

Cap-and-Trade and the Cheap Energy Illusion

With regard to the cost of cap and trade, Obama is on record (during his campaign) as saying that electricity costs with cap and trade would "skyrocket".

Take a look at European electricity prices to get a small glimpse of where we are headed. The information available on the internet indicates a range of 19 cents/kwh to the high 40's per kwh. The 19 cent # happens to be France which gets 80% of its power from nuclear energy. By comparison, most of the US currently has less than 10 cents per kwh in regulated markets.

The US currently gets 50% of electric production from coal, 20% from nuclear, 20% from nat gas combined cycle and 10% from "renewables". Of the 10% renewables ~7% comes from hydro and ~2% from wood waste combustion.

Obama has said that coal plant operators would "go bankrupt" under his policies. He and his left wing environmental supporters are also opposed to nuclear. He is silent on natural gas (of which we have plenty). The left wing environmental lobby would never allow another hydro plant to be built. Hmm, looks like his statement that electricity prices would "sky rocket" under his policies actually makes a lot of sense.

Nuclear Firms Power Up - Barron's

I agree with Rod Adams, there are some associated stocks that should perform well when the nuclear renaissance gets recognized. Shaw Group is the obvious benefactor since it owns 20% of Westinghouse. Curtis-Wright is a great company that not only supplies nuclear grade valves but they also are the sole supplier to Westinghouse for Reactor Coolant Pumps as well as Control Rod Drive Systems. For every Westinghouse committment by a power company Shaw ends up with EPC contracts. Shaw has also announced that they will be building a huge plant in Lake Charles to build modularized nuclear systems to support the Westinghouse backlog. Flowserve will end up supplying large quantities of valves and non-primary system pumps (they are supplying critical reactor system valves for the Areva project in Finland).

Uranium: Analysts Forgot Yellow Cake

Japan Steel Works (JSW), currently maintains a large lead in production capacity of single piece heavy forgings used in the manufacture of reactor pressure vessels. This capacity is currently ~4 reactors/year but a very large capacity expansion program (~$800,000,000) is underway and will triple output to ~12 reactors/yr. by 2012. In addition to the JSW expansion Doosan Heavy Industries in South Korea is also undertaking a major capability expansion and has received contracts from Westinghouse to provide large forgings for reactor vessels and steam generators for projects in China and the U.S.

Wind Power: What We Can Learn from Denmark

In support of candewish, Denmark's population is approximately that of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and the peak load for that country is ~6,500 MW vs. Texas (ERCOT) load of 65,000 MW and US load of ~800,000 MW. It's difficult to see how the Denmark data is scalable to the US .

Going Nuclear: 3 Indices, 1 ETF and Seeking Alpha

Right on. Another approach is to try to access the nuclear power build out by addressing companies that are involved in the entire nuclear power spectrum---engineering firms, reactor manufacturers, equipment suppliers, maintenance services, low level radwaste disposal, in addition to uranium miners and fuel cycle suppliers. I like to look at each of these potential investment segments. There are some opportunities out there but these are limited by constraints (the need to go to foreign exchanges, avoiding huge industrial conglomerates whose nuclear busineess is a tiny % of the company, etc.) I have picked some stocks but I feel that it may be a long time before the market recognizes their potential. In closing, your insights are some of the best that I have found.

GE: Nuclear Growth Galore

Jake,

The South African company that developed the SA version of the PBMR has actually been acquired by Westinghouse Nuclear which is now majority owned by Toshiba of Japan. However, Shaw Group of Baton Rouge is a 20% owner of Westinghouse. Their stock is traded on the NYSE (ticker SGR) which may be the only practical way to play the bright future of the AP1000. Another 10% or so of Westinghouse Nuclear was recently purchased from Toshiba by Kazatomprom -- an entity of the Kazakhstan government. Toshiba apparently pursued this deal to gain access to the very significant uranium reserves of Kazakhstan. I know of no current plans by Westinghouse to implement commercialization of the PBMR design although I hope they are feverishly pursuing this great concept. Maybe one of the other contributors can help on this.