Sunday, August 26, 2007

Advocates for nuclear power believe their time has come. The Bush administration has been pushing for a nuclear power revival, and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains powerful financial incentives, especially for the first half-dozen plants. If lawmakers make companies pay for carbon emissions, nuclear would get another boost. So far, 17 companies are weighing license applications for more than 30 plants; Constellation Energy Group filed a partial application for a new unit in July. Other plants are being built abroad.

The main companies in the nuclear power construction business are a unit of General Electric, Areva of France, a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Westinghouse Electric unit of Toshiba.

In anticipation of a nuclear resurgence, uranium prices have soared, brightening the fortunes of firms such as Cameco of Saskatchewan, the world's largest uranium producer. Uranium prices rose to $136 per ton in mid-July from $11 a pound in June 2003, though they have fallen to $105 per ton.

John H. O'Neill, a partner at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, is an optimist about nuclear power. After years out in the cold, he is sensing a turn. Many clients too young to remember the last nuclear plant built in the United States are coming for "Nuke 101," he said. "We're all true believers," he said. But even O'Neill puts a long timeline on the development of nuclear plants, longer than the average investor's timeline. If everything goes smoothly, he said, a plant could come online by 2015. Many skeptics think it could be much longer, pointing to high costs and the unresolved issue of waste disposal.