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In 1979, General Electric Co. (GE) introduced its famous tagline: “We bring good things to life.”
One of the things this iconic American company brought to life this year was GE Vernova Inc. (GEV) – which GE spun out as a new standalone entity in April.
This “purpose-built company” combined GE Renewable Energy, GE Power, and GE Digital. As the company states, it “is uniquely positioned to lead customers through the energy transition” to solve the “energy trilemma of reliability, affordability, and sustainability.”
The company is already making strides… nuclear ones, at that.
This weekend, CNBC reported that GE Vernova is planning to set up small nuclear reactors across the developed world. This deployment will happen over the next decade.
Nicole Holmes, chief commercial officer at GE Vernova’s nuclear unit, GE Hitachi, said that the company’s small modular reactors (SMRs) promise to reduce the cost of building new nuclear plants.
An SMR is a type of advanced nuclear reactor that can produce electricity. It has a smaller footprint and can be constructed faster than traditional reactors. They are about a third the size of the average reactors in the current U.S. fleet, with a power capacity of 300 megawatts or less – which could power more than 200,000 U.S. households.
As such, SMRs could revitalize nuclear as a vital power source needed for the rise of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and manufacturing.
GE Vernova’s SMR is called the BWRX-300. And compared to a larger nuclear plant, it has fewer components, less concrete, and less steel. BWRX-300’s smaller size allows it to be put in more locations.
Here’s why GE Vernova’s nuclear venture is so important: In many respects, nuclear power has no equal, especially when it comes to powering data centers. Because of nuclear’s unique virtues, and the compelling economics it promotes, leading data center operators are becoming leading nuclear power investors.
“Everything old is new again,” 18th century author Jonathan Swift said. And the nuclear energy industry lends truth to that saying.
So, in today’s Smart Money, let’s take a look at nuclear energy’s history…
And then I’ll share one specific way you can capitalize on its future.
A Look Into the Past
Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, nuclear energy in the United States enjoyed a Golden Age. Power plants sprouted up across the country to provide reliable, “pollution-free” energy. But the Golden Age started to lose its luster in the late 1970s, as public sentiment turned against the radioactive power source and attempted to halt its nationwide expansion.
Then, in March 1979, a reactor at the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown. Although the accident did not cause any fatalities, it dealt a fatal blow to the industry.
Seven years after Three Mile Island, the Soviet Union’s horrific nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl terrified the world. And it seemed to guarantee that nuclear power would never make a comeback in the United States.
Yet, despite that monumental setback, nuclear power’s public image eventually started to improve, bit by bit.
Its image first started to improve when the term “climate change” entered the global lexicon. When that term appeared, it introduced the environmental equivalent of the classic 1960s self-help book I’m OK – You’re OK.
This relativistic attitude asserted that no source of power generation is all bad, nor all good. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
For its part, nuclear energy has the unique strength of providing continuous baseload power, while not fouling the air or spewing CO2 emissions.
Because nuclear power still satisfies about 19% of electricity demand in the U.S., its contribution to clean air is roughly equivalent to removing 100 million cars from the nation’s highways.
Moreover, although nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste, they don’t emit a molecule of those toxins into the air. This singular virtue cast a favorable, new light on nuclear power and helped it reclaim a shred of respectability.
But old attitudes die hard. The world was not yet ready to welcome home this prodigal power source with open arms.
Then AI arrived. And it immediately cleared a seat at the energy table for nuclear power…
The AI-Sparked Nuclear Revival
AI demands such spectacular volumes of electric power that existing sources are not able to provide. During the last three years alone, the combined electricity consumption of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) soared more than 80%.
That explosive growth is certain to continue.
So, like GE Vernova, these tech giants “rediscovered” nuclear power as an ideal energy source.
In October, Amazon announced that Amazon Web Services (AWS) – its cloud computing platform – is set to invest more than $500 million in nuclear power.
AWS has signed an agreement with Dominion Energy Inc. (D), Virginia’s top utility company, to explore the development of an SMR near Dominion’s North Anna Nuclear Generating Station (located about halfway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond).
Around the same time, Google announced it will purchase power from Kairos Power, a small modular reactors developer. And in September, Microsoft made a deal with Constellation Energy Corp. (CEG) to restart a reactor at the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear facility.
As the tech giants need to feed their growing appetite for electric power, they are investing directly in nuclear power.
And this is where the profit opportunity comes in.
This new high-profile demand for nuclear power from the tech industry could accelerate the uranium industry’s growth and profitability.
So, to capitalize on that potential, I recommend investing in the uranium market. In fact, I recently recommended a unique energy play to my Fry’s Investment Report members that stands to benefit directly from the growth of AI technologies.
Regards,
Eric Fry
The post Every Old Profit Opportunity Becomes New Again… Including Nuclear Energy appeared first on InvestorPlace.
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