Some serious questions are starting to be asked as the nation prepares to build its first nuclear plant in decades.
The answer to these questions, as you’ll soon learn, will be worth a fortune to on-point investors.
It’s like this…
Of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States, no two are the same. A recent AP report said, “It’s a fact experts blame for causing construction and regulatory delays, leading to bigger bills for power customers.”
And now that a nuclear rebirth is upon us, industry executives want to make sure they’re not repeating past mistakes.
Baking nuclear cookies
The key, according to nuclear thought leaders, is reactor pre-approval.
The idea is to have the government preapprove several reactor designs, and then let companies choose from the list.
Knowing which reactors are on the list will be a key tool in earning easy nuclear profits once new projects are approved.
To some extent, we’re already seeing this play out…
Thanks to an $8 billion loan guarantee from Obama, Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is about to build the country’s first new nuclear plant since before my dad graduated high school. And instead of custom-building the reactor, the developer is going to use one of five designs under review by the Nuclear Regulator Commission.
Southern has chosen Westinghouse Electric Co.’s AP1000 reactor, but it could’ve also chosen:
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GE (NYSE: GE) / Hitachi’s (NYSE: HIT) ABWR or ESBWR;
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Areva’s (PARIS: CEI) EPR; or
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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ US-APWR
This new approach is helping to make nuclear energy cheaper. Instead of paying hundreds of millions of dollars to design each plant, that money can be spent just once.
And the cost savings don’t end there…
New plants, for the most part, will be prefabricated.
Instead of assembling the plant piece-by-piece onsite, the AP1000 would be delivered in 300 preassembled sections — allowing for better, quicker, and cheaper assembly.
It’s the same technique Ford applied to revolutionize how cars were made. And it must work, because it’s pretty widely adopted.
Next-next generation
Going long GE, Areva, Hitachi, and Toshiba (the parent company of Westinghouse) is probably a good nuclear strategy.
We already know that their reactors are on the short list for this new pre-approval process.
But there’s one more reactor design that may make the cut… It’s called the APR-1400, and it’s being built by the Koreans.
Featuring built-in shields against missile attacks and elaborate safeguards against earthquake damage, I’m dubbing this design the next-next generation nuclear reactor.
It was good enough to beat out all the competitors mentioned above in a recent bidding process in the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE didn’t go with Areva, GE, or Westinghouse. For the reasons I just mentioned, it awarded a $20 billion contract to the Koreans.
It just so happens, I’ve discovered a small company that’s trying to import these reactors to the United States. It’s a microcap right now, trading for less than $0.75. But it won’t stay that way once it solidifies this deal with the Koreans…
The profit opportunity here is so unique and urgent that I’ve put together a full video report on what I’ve found.
Today is the first day we’ve released it, so there’s still time to learn about this potential 100-times-your money play before the video starts making rounds on the Web.
Call it like you see it,
Nick
