- More than half of U.S. nuclear reactors are losing money to the tune of ~$2.9B/year, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
- Nuclear power plants are getting paid $20-$30 per MW-hour for their electricity but it costs an average of $35/MW-hour to run them, meaning 34 of the country’s 61 plants are in the red, with almost all the merchant reactors owned by Exelon (EXC), Entergy (ETR +0.4%) and FirstEnergy (FE +0.2%) apparently below break-even, the report says.
- “It’s a real threat to carbon emission reductions,” Bloomberg analyst Nicholas Steckler says. “How regulators confront this widespread challenge has massive implications.”
- None of the companies offer comments on the profitability of their individual plants, but ETR says merchant nuclear generators selling power into wholesale markets are facing “financial challenges due to sustained wholesale power price declines and other unfavorable market conditions.”
- Nuclear-related ETFs: URA, NLR
- Now read: Uranium: Now Looks Like A Good Time To Buy
Original article