Dear Reader,
If you were around and conscious in the 1970s, prepare for a blast from the past: Pennsylvania is now considering restarting one of the nuclear reactors at the state’s notorious Three Mile Island plant.
If those three words have a familiar ring to them, it’s because before Chernobyl, Three Mile Island was the most famous crisis to ever befall the nuclear industry and remains the worst reactor failure in American history.
Now, nearly 50 years after panic swept across the Mid-Atlantic region, the state of Pennsylvania and Constellation Energy Corporation are seriously considering relaunching one of the two reactors operating at this site.
The move, though easily turned into clickbait by mainstream media, should be seen as neither alarming, nor surprising.
For one thing, the actual meltdown was only a partial meltdown caused by cascading failures in the secondary systems which allowed coolant to be released from what was supposed to be a closed loop.
The resulting cleanup cost over $1B — a princely sum back in the late 70s by any standard, but did the actual damage inflicted warrant the panic? Our analysts have traveled the world over, dedicated to finding the best and most profitable investments in the global energy markets. All you have to do to join our Energy and Capital investment community is sign up for the daily newsletter below.
Three Mile Island: America’s Chernobyl, Or Another Media Hypejob?
Studies conducted in the aftermath of the incident revealed that the average radioactive exposure to residents living within 10 miles of the plant was 8 millirem — or about the severity of a single X-Ray.
Maximum exposure, for any individuals observed in the area did not exceed 100 millirem, less than ⅓ the average annual expected background radiation exposure for U.S. residents.
In the years which followed, studies have been inconclusive as to whether there has been any significant increase in the incidence of cancers stemming from the events of March 1979.
So like I said, not shocking, that there is now renewed interest in nuclear power in general is also not a surprise.
Nuclear energy, when you remove the headline grabbing stories which come around once in a decade or two, is among the safest, most practical methods for converting energy into electricity known to man.
Just think about it… What else can provide power to an entire city, require only a few tons of fuel per year, and produce no carbon dioxide?
What else can provide all the power needs for the world’s biggest, most expensive warships, and only need fueling once every 20 years?
Nuclear Energy: The Greenest Of All
What needs no sun, no wind, and no combustion, of any kind, to operate?
There is only one answer to these questions, and it’s what makes nuclear the most likely candidate to supplant fossil fuels as the premier energy source for the second half of the 21st century.
These days, however, the big, massive, gigawatt plants of the 20th century are slowly giving way to a new generation of smaller, cleaner, more streamlined operations.
Right now, the trend in nuclear, from Asia to Europe to the US, is the Small Modular Reactor, or SMR.
SMRs are currently the focus of several new companies headed by silicon valley royalty, including one startup backed by Bill Gates, which just broke ground on its first facility in Wyoming last month.
AI pioneer Sam Altman, who has long been warning of an AI-catalyzed energy crunch, is Chairman of the board of Oklo, a fission plant design company founded in 2013 which went public this May.
SMRs typically deliver about 1/10 the power of a standard large scale reactor, but a subset of this category — microreactors — can go even smaller than that, making as little as only 2-3 megawatts to supply small communities, military installations or even civil assets like hospitals.
There is, however, one sticking point… And it’s not a small one.
American Nuclear Fuel… Down To Near Zero Production Levels
You see, while the U.S. produces more than 30% of the world’s nuclear energy, it produces less than 1% of the nuclear fuel.
This imbalance is so stark that for years we’ve maintained uranium trading partners of, let’s just call it less than scrupulous reputation.
Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, up until last year, provided as much as 50% of our domestic supply.
This is nuclear fuel which provided energy for 70 million Americans, not to mention power for the pride of our naval fleet, our carriers and submarines.
All of that ended this year, in large part due to the deteriorating diplomatic situation with Russia, but that only creates another problem: where do we get the enriched uranium necessary not just to power our current reactor fleet, but the SMRs of the future?
Well, the Federal government isn’t sitting on the sidelines with this one. A recently passed bipartisan bill is about to inject serious funds into the American nuclear energy industry, with the ultimate goal of becoming independant of all external sources of nuclear fuel.
It’s the first company in more than 7 decades to initiate a new uranium enrichment program in the U.S., and it’s also the only company in the U.S. licensed to produce the sort of high-purity uranium that next generation SMRs will need to operate.
That puts this company in a very unique position.
Want the rest of the story? Here it is.
Fortune favors the bold, Alex Koyfman His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Energy and Capital. To learn more about Alex, click here.
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