The attitude concerning nuclear power is turning around. Attached is an interesting perspective from Bank of America (BofA) in a report called “The Nuclear Necessity”.
The report from BofA Securities says “We are bullish on uranium and nuclear power. After a decade of underinvestment, a shortage is visible; our strategists forecast 20-40% upside. Global demand is also rising, with 60 new reactors being built & 100 more approved. Resource nationalism, energy security, war and inflation echo the nuclear build-out of the 1970s/80s.”
Other points in the report worth mentioning include:
· “Some policy makers are embracing the idea that nuclear energy can help meet decarbonization goals, and many more may follow. European emissions are on track to miss the 2030 target by nearly 1 billion tons of CO2. As a result, official forecasters like the IEA and the UN are adding more nuclear energy into net zero scenarios. The IEA’s latest World Energy Outlook suggests that nuclear power output will have to nearly double by 2050 to meet net zero goals (Exhibit 11). Annual additions would need to average 152TWh per year, the fastest rate ever and above the pace expected in 2021.”
· “Industry research suggests that, after accounting for efficiency, storage needs, the cost of transmission, and other broad system costs, nuclear power plants are one of the least expensive sources of energy.”
· “Nuclear power is also one of the cleanest sources of energy when evaluating lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Exhibit 23).”
· Deaths: Nuclear energy, solar, and wind have all caused essentially no deaths from routine operation; all are orders of magnitude safer than coal and oil pollution (Exhibit 25).
· Living near a nuclear power plant for a year gives less radiation exposure than a dentist’s chest X-ray. Coal ash emits 33x more radiation than nuclear plants.