BUFFET INVESTMENT SAYS FORGET NUCLEAR

Buffett Bets Against Nuclear Power

Alex Frank, June 5, 2013 (Hastings Group)

“…[L]egendary investor Warren Buffett sent the latest in a series of signals that nuclear power is a bad economic investment in the U.S…[with the announcement that MidAmerican Energy won't be building a [small modular reactor] nuclear unit in Iowa…and will be refunding much of the public money collected…[MidAmerican said] the time is probably not right for nuclear until 'carbon emissions are constrained or taxed…

“…[This ends a MidAmerican] nuclear review process that has been underway since 2010…[It was more bad news for the so-called ‘small modular reactor (SMR)…The June 4th pullback from SMRs in Iowa was not the first time Buffett has killed a nuclear project. In 2008, Buffett's energy company spiked plans for a reactor in Idaho…because it would cost too much…”

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“…[But MidAmerican bought] a 49% share of a $1.8 billion [290 megawatt] solar-power plant owned by NRG Energy Inc….[and built in Arizona by] First Solar Inc… [and] a $2 billion California solar farm from First Solar…[Buffett also] invested heavily in [Iowa’s] rapidly growing wind industry…[MidAmerican recently made] a $1.9 billion investment in new Iowa wind farms…The new investment will add up to 656 new turbine's to the wind portfolio of MidAmerican Energy…

“Warren Buffett is far from being alone in dealing the nuclear power industry major setbacks in 2013… Duke announced that it would not repair the damaged Crystal River reactor in Florida… will abandon plans for two nuclear reactors at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina…[and] Dominion Resources Inc. voluntarily shut the 566-megawatt (MW) Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin…”

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