Last week, the UK government announced plans for a new nuclear power plant that would lead efforts to quadruple energy supplies.
Make no mistake, such a thing would be a huge deal for the UK’s energy security.
Yet it’s unlikely to happen.
At least not at the scale regulators want.
You see, the UK tried to restart its nuclear power industry back in 2016. There were actually 18 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity in the pipeline, but enthusiasm dissipated quickly after Hitachi and Toshiba abandoned nuclear power project plans due to projected cost overruns.
Then consider the timing.
Based on previous schedules, it would likely take 20 years for just one of these power plants to come online. By that time, solar and wind combined with utility-scale storage will be so cheap and ubiquitous, nuclear power may simply be superfluous.
At least in terms of conventional nuclear power. 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.
Of course, this doesn’t mean nuclear power will be relegated to the dustbin of history.
It’s just that the next generation of nuclear power will look nothing like it does today.
Instead, those large-scale legacy nuclear power plants will be replaced with small nuclear reactors, also known as SMRs.
While SMRs are considerably smaller than traditional nuclear power plants, they’re far more reliable and flexible. And they’re considerably cheaper to build and operate.
With renewable energy and storage continuing to grow rapidly, less nuclear power will be required in the future. Note that I wrote “less,” because it will still be an integral part of the global energy economy. And it will be SMRs that are sending electrons to the grid, not these relics …
Now if you’re a regular reader of these pages, you’re probably already familiar with SMRs. I’ve certainly written about them in the past.
But in terms of how you can profit from this new generation of nuclear power, your fortunes will be found in fuel — specifically in nuclear fuel.
You see, the fuel required to run these SMRs is vastly different from the fuel used in the nuclear power plants of the past. And it’s far superior, too.
The fuel is called Tri-Fuel 238, and it’s 40,835 times more powerful than natural gas, 67,389 times more potent than gasoline, and it’s completely emission-free.
It’s also so cheap to produce that it undercuts every other form of traditional energy on the planet — even oil, natural gas and coal.
And that’s really what it all boils down to.
The reason renewable energy has been able to gain so much market share over the past 20 years is because costs have plummeted. In fact, the latest data from the International Energy Agency show that in about 5 years, renewable energy capacity will represent 42% of the global energy mix.
Nuclear, however, has shown little to no movement at all. And in some instances, has fallen.
But with SMRs ready to come to market, that’s going to change for no other reason than they make nuclear power affordable and without exorbitant government subsidies.
In fact, as reported in Bloomberg, the UK government is considering a final investment decision on two nuclear projects that could use small modular reactors.
That part didn’t show up in the headlines, but don’t think for a moment that we didn’t catch wind of it.
Truth is, we’ve already been profiting from the SMR market, and will continue to do so as more and more countries look to replace their aging nuclear power fleets with modern, more efficient small nuclear reactors.
Make no mistake: the transition from traditional nuclear to SMRs IS happening. And only a fool would ignore this opportunity to make a boatload of cash from the next generation of nuclear power.
Don’t sit on the sidelines on this one. Check out our latest investment report on Small Modular reactors, and of course the stock that’s cornering the market on the fuel required to run these things. To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth… Jeff Siegel
@JeffSiegel on Twitter
Check us out on YouTube!Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.
