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Uncertain future for nuclear-related industries

an accident or other significant event “could result in increased regulation, less public support for nuclear fueled energy, lower demand for uranium and lower uranium prices.”

Japan’s material adverse change: from financings to M&A | Financial Regulatory Forum   Reuters.com, by John Mackie, 28 March 11“………the business and legal communities cannot stand still, as they deal with several quite-unexpected ripple effects. Both M&A and capital markets transactions have suffered, and disclosure practices are now coming under review. Set against a backdrop of plummeting stock prices, companies in nuclear-related industries are caught in their own battle to sustain themselves………. Continue reading →

March 29, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Wall Street spooked on nuclear industry’s future outlook

the nuclear industry has also been working hard to increase its share of the market, hiring armies of lobbyists to press their case with power brokers on Capitol Hill……In the words of one long term industry analyst, “Three mile island turned from a $1 billion dollar asset into a $2 billion liability in just 90 minutes.”..Wall Street was spooked then and it’s even more spooked now……

AUDIO Correspondents Report – Nuclear re-think in the US 27/03/2011 ELIZABETH JACKSON: ABC Radio The crisis in Japan is causing many countries elsewhere in the world to look again at their nuclear industry – the United States is certainly one of them.Of the 104 reactors in operation, 23 of them in the US are similar to the stricken Fukushima plant, and two of them are also perched precariously over a Pacific Rim fault line. Continue reading →

March 28, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Australian expert, Barry Brook, downplays Japan’s nuclear problem

“I think overtime people will become more understanding of small risk and big benefits that nuclear brings,”

Japan’s nuclear crisis is mainly public panic, not radiation risk: Australian expert By Vienna MaCANBERRA, March 26 (Xinhua) — Japan’s nuclear crisis was mainly public panic, not radiation risk, an Australian expert told Xinhua, expressing optimism over the future development of international nuclear industry.


However, workers are still trying to contain radiation leaks at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants in Japan, since reactors were damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami.

Although prevailing winds would likely carry contaminated smoke or steam released from nuclear power plant away from the densely populated city to dissipate over the Pacific Ocean, millions in Tokyo of Japan remained indoors, fearing a blast of radioactive material from Fukushima.

The crisis has triggered global alarm and reviews of safety at atomic power plants around the world. Continue reading →

March 28, 2011 Posted by | marketing | Leave a comment

Shares in uranium likely to be doomed

Even more ominous in this new environment is the fact that storage pools for spent uranium rods are now recognized as a threat. Every reactor has one of these glowing pools, specifically because the world has not found a way to dispose of nuclear waste…..

the developed world will eventually turn very sharply away from nuclear energy and towards cheap and abundant natural gas…….

Is Uranium A Buy Again? Beware of These Radioactive Stocks ETF DAILY NEWS, byn George Wolff, 27 March 11, “………The industry’s future is “red hot” according to CBS Business News writer David Phillips. Cameco and other uranium miners are already spending heavily on the construction of new mines and processing facilities. They’re still scrambling in anticipation of the global nuclear boom which seemed so inevitable before the Japanese disaster……

But, in the wake of the Japanese crisis, I believe that the optimists touting a rebound in the nuclear industry are premature at best. At worst, they may be flogging a dead horse. Continue reading →

March 28, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Russian nuclear czar – selling $6 billion enriched uranium to USA?

Rosatom Signs $2.8 Billion Contract to Enrich Uranium for U.S.  Bloomberg, By Ilya Khrennikov – Mar 26, 2011 Rosatom Corp., Russia’s government- owned nuclear holding company, agreed a contract valued at about $2.8 billion to supply enriched uranium to the U.S., Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta said, citing the company.The accord includes an option to double supplies, possibly boosting the value of the deal to $6 billion, Kommersant said in a separate report, citing Rosatom Chief Executive Officer Sergei Kirienko.….Rosatom Signs $2.8 Billion Contract to Enrich Uranium for U.S. – Bloomberg

March 28, 2011 Posted by | marketing, Russia, Uranium | Leave a comment

How many $trillions is the nuclear industry going to cost?

No insurance company would — or will, or can — insure such risks. So who insures them? You do. Canada’s Nuclear Liability Act, proclaimed in 1976, caps the liability of nuclear operators at $75 million. Beyond that, the taxpayer pays.

Nuclear power is the worst option,  TheChronicleHerald.ca, By SILVER DONALD CAMERONSun, Mar 27 – “…….The first major unknown cost is insurance. Nobody knows what a catastrophic nuclear accident might cost. If the crippled Japanese reactors suffer meltdowns, how many lives will be lost, how many people will be injured, how much property will be rendered unusable? In 1996, informed observers speculated that the cost of a catastrophic accident at Darlington, Ont., could reach $1 trillion. Continue reading →

March 28, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

Uranium industry’s optimism doesn’t seem justified

insurance liability caps granted to the American nuclear power industry,  for example, produce an annual indirect subsidy of $33 million for every reactor in the United States…..liability costs to the Japanese government arising from Fukushima Daiichi, while still impossible to estimate, were presumably large, and might make other governments see that offering subsidies to renewable energy sources might be a comparative bargain…

Uranium Processor Still Optimistic About Nuclear Industry, NYTimes.com, By IAN AUSTEN : March 25, 2011 OTTAWA — On the same day earlier this month that the  Canadian company Cameco, a global leader in uranium mining and processing, gathered its executives from around the world for a strategic planning session, news broke of Japan’s staggering earthquake….. Continue reading →

March 26, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Canada, Uranium | Leave a comment

China selling off old nuclear reactor models to Pakistan

China to Sell Outdated Nuclear Reactors to Pakistan, Voice of America, Stephanie Ho | Beijing March 24, 2011 China is pressing ahead with nuclear energy cooperation with Pakistan, despite concerns that it is shipping decades-old technology to its South Asian neighbor. This comes as China suspended approvals for new nuclear power plants within China to review safety standards following the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan.  Continue reading →

March 26, 2011 Posted by | China, marketing | Leave a comment

TEPCO shareholders to lose their whole investment

After repaying borrowings due this year and next, Tepco should have 8 trillion of net debt,

Tokyo nuclear firm protected, but not shareholders. Reuters , Mar 24, 2011  By John Foley HONG KONG — The owner of Japan’s stricken nuclear reactors should emerge from the wreckage intact. But shareholders in Tokyo Electric Power, whose Fukushima complex was damaged by this month’s earthquake, could lose their entire investment. Continue reading →

March 26, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Iowa residents will pay up in advance for nuclear reactor build

“Advanced cost recovery is nothing more or less than a tax on ratepayers to fund nuclear reactors that the capital market won’t touch,”

Possible nuclear expansion costs to Iowans: $50 a month, Des Moines Register, 25 March 11, Iowa’s average MidAmerican customer could see their monthly bills spike by $50 or more a month under a proposal being considered by the state’s legislature, according to a report released today Continue reading →

March 26, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Italy and Switzerland halt nuclear programs

Italy Puts Nuclear Plans on Hold for a Year  Voice of America, 23 March, Italy has declared a one-year moratorium on plans to re-establish a nuclear power industry, in response to a Japanese nuclear crisis that has raised concerns across Europe about the safety of the technology.

The Italian Cabinet approved the moratorium Wednesday, halting any decision-making and research into suitable locations for nuclear plants….. Switzerland reacted to the Japanese nuclear crisis by suspending the approval process for three nuclear plants. Italy Puts Nuclear Plans on Hold for a Year | Europe | English

March 24, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Italy | Leave a comment

China, Germany, now USA, put the brakes on nuclear development

corporations are bracing for a potential U.S. regulatory backlash that will elevate costs. Governments from China to Germany moved swiftly last week to brake further nuclear development,

UPDATE 3-NRG, eyeing Japan, first to slow US nuclear plant work | Reuters, 22 March 11, NRG pull-back is first sign of U.S. impact from quake * US nuclear builders face uncertainty amid NRC review, By Eileen O’Grady, HOUSTON, March 21 (Reuters) – U.S. nuclear power developer. NRG Energy Inc has all but stopped work on a majo project in Texas, the first U.S. company to slow down ambitious growth plans in the wake of the crisis in Japan.

NRG, which has worked closely with Tokyo Electric Power Co to develop the Texas reactors, said there was too much regulatory uncertainty to continue pouring cash into the project.NRG’s move is the first sign that

as regulators sought time to apply any lessons learned from the crisis on Japan’s east coast.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s order for a review of all plants raises uncertainty about potential design changes and timing of new license approvals, NRG Chief Executive David Crane said. He also noted that low natural gas prices are challenging the economics of new nuclear power plants.

“The economics related to the capital budget are right on the edge of viability,” Crane told Reuters in an interview.

NRG and its partner Toshiba Corp (6502.T) will reduce the scope of development work at Nuclear Innovation North America, which has been working to build new units at the South Texas Project nuclear station in Matagorda County, 90 miles (145 km)southwest of Houston.

UPDATE 3-NRG, eyeing Japan, first to slow US nuclear plant work | Reuters

March 22, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Germany’s nuclear operators might scrap payments to renewables fund

UPDATE 1-German nuclear firms dodge green fund issue | Reuters, Mar 21, 2011 Report says they might scrap payments FRANKFURT,   – Germany’s nuclear operators dodged addressing a report that they might scrap payments of 300 million euros ($425.3 million) this year into a fund subsidising green energy after they had to close plants for safety checks.Sueddeutsche Zeitung, citing company sources, said last week’s enforced shutdown of reactors built before 1980 for security checks in light of the nuclear crisis in Japan, had prompted the four German operators to consider stopping the payments. [POWER/DE]…..UPDATE 1-German nuclear firms dodge green fund issue | Reuters

March 22, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Germany | Leave a comment

Japan’s taxpayers will cop the bill for nuclear disaster

Japanese Taxpayers Likely to Shoulder Nuclear Liability – Law Blog – WSJ, 21 March 11, By Ashby Jones At the end of the day, who’s going to pay to compensate the victims of the problems at Japan’s nuclear reactors?Had the earthquake and resulting issues happened in the U.S., the answer would likely be quite complicated. In Japan, it’s simpler: the Japanese taxpayer will shoulder the burden, according to this WSJ story by Andrew Dowell and Erik Holm. Continue reading →

March 22, 2011 Posted by | business and costs | Leave a comment

first nuclear, then uranium, shares tumble

Nuclear sell-off sweeps to uranium mining, Financial Times, By William MacNamara in London,  March 20 2011 The sell-off slamming the nuclear power industry has swept to uranium mining, the source of nuclear fuel, with a range of miners’ shares opening this morning at least 15 per cent lower than levels preceding the earthquake in Japan.
Shares in Cameco, the major Canadian uranium producer, have fallen 20 per cent since March 10 despite Jerry Grandey, chief executive, saying that the impact of the Japanese nuclear crisis on the company’s sales would be “minimal”….

March 22, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

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