Latest news with #SMRs
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Trump nuclear power orders could open small reactors in the U.S. by 2030, GE Vernova CEO says
President Donald Trump's executive orders on nuclear power could lead to the deployment of small modular reactors in the U.S. by late 2030, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said Wednesday. Trump on Friday ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide on applications to construct and operate new nuclear plants within 18 months. The order also calls for the NRC to "adopt shorter deadlines tailored to particular reactor types." The nuclear industry has long complained that the NRC's approval process takes too long. Trump's order could result in approvals to start building small modular reactors in the U.S. by 2027, Strazik told the research firm Bernstein in an interview. This would create a "credible shot" of adding these reactors to the U.S. nuclear fleet in late 2030 or 2031, the CEO said. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are plant designs that many in the industry view as the future of nuclear power. SMR developers including GE Vernova believe the reactors will one day lower the cost of building nuclear plants and speed up construction because they are smaller and assembled onsite with prefabricated parts. Large nuclear plants such as Plant Vogtle in Georgia have been plagued with multi-billion dollar cost overruns and lengthy construction delays. "It's just the beginning of what could very much become a very meaningful part of our business in the 2030s. We're very encouraged by this," Strazik said of Trump's executive order. GE Vernova received approval earlier this month to deploy its BWRX-300 reactor in Ontario, Canada. It will be the first SMR deployed in the West, according to the company. The Tennessee Valley Authority filed an application with the NRC earlier this month to build a GE Vernova reactor at Oak Ridge, Tenn. "We expect more customers to put in applications to construct new SMRs with our technology before the year is over," Strazik said. Customer interest in GE Vernova's SMR is "very high," with users increasingly willing to pay a premium for nuclear because it doesn't emit carbon dioxide, the CEO said. GE Vernova's core business is manufacturing and servicing natural gas-powered turbines, which is seeing high demand as electricity consumption grows in the U.S. The company's stock has soared nearly 48% this year.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nuclear stocks extend rally as Trump aims to quadruple US nuclear capacity by 2050
Nuclear stocks extended their rally on Tuesday on the heels of President Trump's executive orders, which aim to quadruple US nuclear power production over the next 25 years. Sam Altman-backed Oklo (OKLO) gained more than 8%, to extend year-to-date gains to more than 145%. Centrus Energy (LEU) rose more than 11% to hover at all-time highs. NuScale Power (SMR) rose 2% while Vistra (VSTR) and Constellation Energy (CEG), the largest nuclear plant operator in the US, rose more than 3%. Producers linked to uranium, a necessary element to fuel nuclear power, also surged. Uranium Energy (UEC) and Energy Fuels (UUUU) were both up more than 1%. The executive orders, signed at the Oval Office by President Trump on Friday with nuclear energy executives in attendance, aim to expand American nuclear energy capacity from approximately 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050. "The problem with the industry has historically been regulatory delay," Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez, who was in attendance at the executive order signing, said on Friday. "Delay and regulations and permitting will absolutely kill you because if you can't get the plant on, you can't get revenue, and the interest costs are horrible." The executive orders clear regulatory and permitting roadblocks and accelerate nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs) that can be manufactured, shipped, and installed on site. The executive orders come as Big Tech has been increasing investments in nuclear technologies in order to power its data centers and AI initiatives. Earlier this month, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) announced a collaboration with advanced nuclear project developer Elementl Power, in yet another sign of Big Tech's insatiable appetite for electricity. This follows a tie-up in September between Microsoft (MSFT) and energy giant Constellation Energy (CEG), as well as Amazon's (AMZN) purchase of a data center campus from energy provider Talen Energy (TLN) last year. Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison in September announced that the company intends to build a data center powered by SMRs. "AI and quantum computing and data centers now are on the rise and they understand that without nuclear its going to be a really hard issue to get to this base load [or constant amount of] energy production," Jay Jiang Yu, founder of microreactor company NANO Nuclear Energy (NNE), told Yahoo Finance on Friday. The VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF (NLR) was trading at a 52-week high on Tuesday, up 20% year to date. Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nuclear engineers want the industry to get 'unstuck' after years of bad PR. The AI boom could be the key.
Big Tech is turning to nuclear power as a potential AI energy solution, including small nuclear reactors. The debate over their viability makes the reactors controversial within the nuclear community. Some told BI the renewed attention related to AI could lead to new reactors and talent, while others remain skeptical. Nuclear energy has historically suffered from a PR problem. With Big Tech eyeing the industry as a possible solution to the vast amounts of energy required by AI, nuclear engineers and experts told Business Insider that they welcome the new attention as a positive shift. However, there's debate about the viability of the new kid on the block, small modular reactors, or SMRs, which are receiving a large part of the hype and funding from venture capitalists. They lack an industry standard definition, but SMRs are generally categorized as smaller reactors that produce less power, 300 megawatts to a traditional reactor's 1,000. For some in the industry, the bigger picture is that, for the first time in a while, there's renewed interest in the US in building new reactors. "Nuclear engineers have strong opinions about things, and some people are salty about whether SMRs are truly viable, or whether or not we should just be building more light water reactors. I want us to build whatever," Christopher Perfetti, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Mexico, told BI. "I'm happy to build a light water reactor. I'm happy to build more SMRs." "I think that just building something will kind of get nuclear unstuck and hopefully get more momentum," added Perfetti, who previously worked as a research and development scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. So far, no SMRs have been built in the US, and only a small handful are operational or under construction worldwide. "The vendors are saying, these reactors are cheaper, these reactors are safer, but we don't know, because they've never been built [in the US]," Allison MacFarlane, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told BI. The kind of financial commitment needed to actualize a nuclear reactor — even a comparatively smaller one — is massive, MacFarlane said, with delays and changes often leading to ballooning budgets. The first nuclear reactors to begin operating since 2016, Unit 3 and Unit 4 at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Georgia, began producing power in 2023 and 2024, respectively. They ended up costing $36.8 billion — more than twice the projected cost, according to a report released by six consumer groups in Georgia. "So full scale, and so each of those steps takes a lot of money," MacFarlane said. "It's going to be expensive to build a demonstration model, and then you've got to get your supply chains going. And for most of the SMRs, these supply chains don't exist." Ultimately, MacFarlane remains a staunch supporter of traditional plants, which she said are more feasible and more cost-efficient. "With large light water large reactors, they benefited from a continent of scale. So it's a lot cheaper to build one large reactor than 10 small ones," she said. "That's why we have only large reactors. And so what these folks are trying to do is model themselves on tech startups, but they're not. They're trying to sell a nuclear reactor." Whether or not SMRs are the future of nuclear energy doesn't matter, said Ricky Witt, who works in radiological safety at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. What's important is that the new wave of money and attention flowing into the industry is very real. As of 2023, a total of 54 nuclear reactors were operating across the US, providing about 20% of the country's power from 1990 to 2021. Reactors were largely cheaper to build when they first began cropping up in the 1960s, but expenses have slowly increased due to a number of factors — plants have to be built on-site, there's no standard design in use across the industry, and regulations concerning security and staff add to operating costs. Facing competition from natural gas plants, which are generally cheaper to build upfront, nuclear power experienced a slowdown from its heyday in 1990, which saw 112 plants operating in the US. Coupled with a series of disasters that stained the industry's image — among them, the incidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island — plants were steadily retiring. "I think going forward, nuclear is going to expand in our country," Witt said. "SMRs will be part of that. Whether it actually happens or not, we don't know, but what I see is building some other nuclear power plants and maybe opening some plants that we've shut down already, like we're doing at Palisades." "They were going towards completely shutting them down, and so now they have directions and Microsoft giving some money," he added. "They've got a new lease on life." Renewed interest from the AI sector has given plants once slated for decommission a second chance. Last year, Microsoft invested in restarting Three Mile Island in New York — in return, it'll receive nuclear energy from the plant for 20 years — and the Department of Energy backing efforts to reopen the Palisades plant in Michigan. "This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft's efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative," Microsoft's VP of energy said at the time. Amazon, for its part, has thrown its lot in with startup X-Energy, investing $500 million toward developing SMRs, while Meta began its hunt for nuclear partners in December of 2024. "We need smart solutions that can help us meet growing energy demands while also addressing climate change," said Amazon's vice president of global data centers, Kevin Miller. "X-energy's technology will be integral in helping achieve this, and is an important step in Amazon's work to achieve our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero by 2040." The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, a nuclear plant that closed in 2020 after more than 45 years of operation, could also come back online, with NextEra Energy expressing interest. PitchBook, a data insights firm that closely tracks VC investments, wrote in a May 21 report that energy investments were a "bright spot" in VC investments in the clean energy space in the first quarter, drawing $2.4 billion in funding. "Geothermal and nuclear technologies continue to gain investor confidence," the firm wrote, highlighting Pacific Fusion's $900 million Series A funding, X Energy's $682.4 million Series C1, and Helion's $425 million Series F round. And interest in different reactor designs is beginning to extend beyond private investors. The Tennessee Valley Authority, owner of the Sequoyah nuclear plant and the nation's largest public power company, recently submitted a request for a permit to build a small nuclear reactor of its own. "We don't want to say trying to make something better is ever bad," Witt said. "So the more that we try to improve, the more we try to come up with new technologies — I think that's just better for everybody. It's better for the consumers and it's better for the people." Reignited interest in the nuclear industry could also help to attract an infusion of new blood, Perfetti said, which the field desperately needs. In his view, it's the perfect time to climb aboard the nuclear bandwagon. "It's actually quite an exciting time in nuclear too, because there are a lot of venture capitalist-supported startups that are really trying to change things and trying to build some more innovative reactor designs, sometimes for things other than electricity production," Perfetti said. "So, I think that there's a lot of excitement there." For young professionals looking for a steady career with opportunity in varying sectors, Perfetti believes nuclear is particularly fertile ground. "There are lots of career opportunities in nuclear, in part because nuclear is faced with a wave of retirements right now, so a lot of the industry is retiring," he said. "They're looking at younger people to replace them, so there's lots of quick promotion opportunities." Read the original article on Business Insider
CNBC
23-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Trump's new tariff threats slam the market — but, our newest stock hits an all-time high
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here's a recap of Friday's key moments. 1. Wall Street declined on Friday after President Donald Trump threatened Apple and the European Union with tariffs. "I don't think it's down enough," Jim Cramer said, referring to the overall stock market while noting Trump's high tolerance for market pain as he pushes for trade deals. Lower bond yields on Friday did not help stocks. However, the 10-year Treasury yield was still elevated and above 4.5%. "On these down days, it's always important to search for positives," said Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis for the Investing Club. CrowdStrike and GE Vernova were our two biggest winners Friday and for the entire week. 2. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Friday that he hopes the president's latest tariff updates "light a fire" under both the EU and Apple. Administration officials said the EU's proposal was not as good as others. In a post on his Truth Social, Trump suggested a 50% tariff on the EU, beginning June 1. He also said that iPhones not made in the U.S. should be subject to a 25% tariff. It appears, however, that progress with China on trade matters continues, with both parties maintaining communications after agreeing last week to temporarily reduce tariffs on each other's goods. 3. Our newest Club name GE Vernova was one of the nuclear stocks doing well Friday amid the overall market sell-off. The stock on Friday hit an all-time intraday high of $468.27 per share. The company, which makes small modular reactors (SMRs), had a double shot of good news this week. It struck an SMR deal with the Tennessee Valley Authority. It also saw Trump agreeing to allow a New York offshore wind project move forward. 4. Stocks covered in Friday's rapid fire at the end of the video were: Deckers Outdoor , Ross Stores , Workday , and Intuit . (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AAPL, GEV. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
The Advertiser
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Swedish MPs back financing for new nuclear reactors
Sweden's parliament has passed a bill to finance a new generation of nuclear reactors the government says are key to energy security and achieving net zero emissions by 2045. The government plans four large-scale reactors - with installed capacity of about 5000 megawatts - or the equivalent in small modular reactors (SMRs). Half of that should be on-stream by 2035, according to the government. "It's a question guaranteeing Swedish jobs, for dealing with climate change and it's a question of Sweden's security," Financial Markets Minster Niklas Wykman said during a debate in parliament on Wednesday. Electricity demand is expected to double to about 300 terrawatt hours over the next two decades and the government says without nuclear power, key new industries like green steel, bio-fuels and large-scale hydrogen production will go elsewhere. The government says it supports all fossil-free energy production,but that only nuclear can supply reliable and predictable power. A white paper published in August last year, which proposed a similar model, said the state could need to lend nuclear developers between 300-600 billion crowns ($A48-$A96 billion). Price guarantees would stay in place for 40 years. Critics say nuclear power will be too expensive and too slow to build and would squeeze out cheaper wind and solar which are the only way to meet increased demand in the short term. "It is an item of religious faith for this government to build nuclear power whatever the price," Birger Lahti of the opposition Left Party said. Sweden's parliament has passed a bill to finance a new generation of nuclear reactors the government says are key to energy security and achieving net zero emissions by 2045. The government plans four large-scale reactors - with installed capacity of about 5000 megawatts - or the equivalent in small modular reactors (SMRs). Half of that should be on-stream by 2035, according to the government. "It's a question guaranteeing Swedish jobs, for dealing with climate change and it's a question of Sweden's security," Financial Markets Minster Niklas Wykman said during a debate in parliament on Wednesday. Electricity demand is expected to double to about 300 terrawatt hours over the next two decades and the government says without nuclear power, key new industries like green steel, bio-fuels and large-scale hydrogen production will go elsewhere. The government says it supports all fossil-free energy production,but that only nuclear can supply reliable and predictable power. A white paper published in August last year, which proposed a similar model, said the state could need to lend nuclear developers between 300-600 billion crowns ($A48-$A96 billion). Price guarantees would stay in place for 40 years. Critics say nuclear power will be too expensive and too slow to build and would squeeze out cheaper wind and solar which are the only way to meet increased demand in the short term. "It is an item of religious faith for this government to build nuclear power whatever the price," Birger Lahti of the opposition Left Party said. Sweden's parliament has passed a bill to finance a new generation of nuclear reactors the government says are key to energy security and achieving net zero emissions by 2045. The government plans four large-scale reactors - with installed capacity of about 5000 megawatts - or the equivalent in small modular reactors (SMRs). Half of that should be on-stream by 2035, according to the government. "It's a question guaranteeing Swedish jobs, for dealing with climate change and it's a question of Sweden's security," Financial Markets Minster Niklas Wykman said during a debate in parliament on Wednesday. Electricity demand is expected to double to about 300 terrawatt hours over the next two decades and the government says without nuclear power, key new industries like green steel, bio-fuels and large-scale hydrogen production will go elsewhere. The government says it supports all fossil-free energy production,but that only nuclear can supply reliable and predictable power. A white paper published in August last year, which proposed a similar model, said the state could need to lend nuclear developers between 300-600 billion crowns ($A48-$A96 billion). Price guarantees would stay in place for 40 years. Critics say nuclear power will be too expensive and too slow to build and would squeeze out cheaper wind and solar which are the only way to meet increased demand in the short term. "It is an item of religious faith for this government to build nuclear power whatever the price," Birger Lahti of the opposition Left Party said. Sweden's parliament has passed a bill to finance a new generation of nuclear reactors the government says are key to energy security and achieving net zero emissions by 2045. The government plans four large-scale reactors - with installed capacity of about 5000 megawatts - or the equivalent in small modular reactors (SMRs). Half of that should be on-stream by 2035, according to the government. "It's a question guaranteeing Swedish jobs, for dealing with climate change and it's a question of Sweden's security," Financial Markets Minster Niklas Wykman said during a debate in parliament on Wednesday. Electricity demand is expected to double to about 300 terrawatt hours over the next two decades and the government says without nuclear power, key new industries like green steel, bio-fuels and large-scale hydrogen production will go elsewhere. The government says it supports all fossil-free energy production,but that only nuclear can supply reliable and predictable power. A white paper published in August last year, which proposed a similar model, said the state could need to lend nuclear developers between 300-600 billion crowns ($A48-$A96 billion). Price guarantees would stay in place for 40 years. Critics say nuclear power will be too expensive and too slow to build and would squeeze out cheaper wind and solar which are the only way to meet increased demand in the short term. "It is an item of religious faith for this government to build nuclear power whatever the price," Birger Lahti of the opposition Left Party said.
