Nuclear power gets a public offering
It might not be that much of a surprise to you that I am a nerd. Working in the IT field, I get a kick out of new gadgets and ideas. That is part of the reason I was so drawn to crypto. A couple of years ago I was introduced to what I feel is an innovative company that really piqued my interest.
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
The company is called Nuscale and as soon as I read about them I started digging up as much information as I could. I even reached out to the company to ask them some questions via Facebook Messenger. Surprisingly, they were very responsive and I still have their answers to my questions saved somewhere.
Unfortunately, there came a point where I asked a question that I should have known better than to ask and after that point I have been hesitant to reach out to them again. All of that may change after the news about Nuscale I read yesterday.
You see, at the time I contacted them, Nuscale was a privately owned company. They had stock, but it was held by private investors and employees of the company. It was virtually impossible to get your hands on any of the stock. Foolishly, I asked the person I was talking to if Nuscale ever had plans of going public because I would love to own some shares.
In case you can't see my mistake, there is no way they could answer that question. It would have likely been considered insider trading at the worst or something less severe at the best. It was a stupid question for me to ask and I was kicking myself for being so stupid.
I still kept following Nuscale, but I kind of gave up hope of ever owning part of the company until yesterday.
Nuscale goes public
That's right, yesterday Nuscale teamed up with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. and they have went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SMR.
Nuscale is the first publicly traded Small Nuclear Reactor company. This isn't the first time I have written about Nuscale on Hive, but if you need a refresher...
The Nuscale SMR is a reactor that takes up far less room than a traditional reactor and according to them, is virtually meltdown proof. They took some of the most concerning aspects of nuclear power and worked from the ground up to create a safe and efficient reactor that can be easily deployed and maintained. These reactors can also be dasiy chained together to scale as large as needed given the demand.
It is pretty cool when you start digging into it. While Nuscale isn't the only company working on SMRs, they are one of the most innovative and again they are the only one that is publicly traded.
In fact, some of their concepts were so impressive that one of the national bodies that oversees nuclear power fast tracked their approval process for the technology.
Advances in sustainable fusion are advancing but up to this point are still just a pipe dream. That's why I think SMRs are so exciting. They give us a safer way to use nuclear power until we reach the point that fusion is viable.
Making some buys
After I saw the announcement about them going public my first question was pretty obvious... What will it cost me?
Remembering how the IPO price of Coinbase kept creeping up before launch, I was afraid that Nuscale was going to be well out of my reach. I was pretty happy to see it hovering right around the $10 mark when I looked up the ticker.
I immediately jumped over to my Robinhood account which I haven't opened in probably a year to see if I had any money still sitting in there. Luckily I did, so I quickly snatched up 12 shares of SMR in after hours trading.
I am currently in the process of trying to decide if I want to call up my broker today and have him add some shares to my Roth IRA and have my holding of Nuscale be a little more official than an app on my phone. Anything in my Roth would be a long term hold versus whatever I plan to do with my Robinhood account. Either way, I would always make sure that I held at least one share just because I think the company is cool.
I have no idea where Nuscale is going to go from here. Energy stocks usually seem to do pretty good, but all it takes is one catastrophe to tank most of them. Plus with an impending recession coming, now might not be the time to buy anything. I figure at $10 a share what the heck. I think the stock has tremendous up side and if Nuscale starts implementing some of these SMR projects across the globe, it could take them to the moon.
Do your own research though!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
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That’s cool thanks for the recommendation I’ll check them out! I think it’s important to advance nuclear as an energy source so I’ll have to read up on them!
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Despite the issues it has had in the past, I think there is a lot more upside than downside for nuclear power. Especially if they are really able to prevent meltdowns.
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Interesting story my friend glad you was able to get ownership of the stock you wanted wishing you tons of success. @boss
!ALIVE
!CTP
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@bozz! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @benthomaswwd. (15/20)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Yeah, I am pretty excited to finally be holding a piece of this company. Even if it is just a small amount. I have a feeling it will do well over time.
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Thats great, you had a goal and achieved it, i really hope it works out for you will be an even better story then as well love it. @bozz !ALIVE 😎
@bozz! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @benthomaswwd. (3/20)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
I had never heard of this company but it sounds really interesting. The only point that worries me is nuclear waste and its management.
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They actually have a pretty cool plan for that. It was one of the things I asked them back when I was first reaching out to them. Whether they follow that plan or not is a different story.
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People make a lot of mistakes while asking questions but it looks like your question wasn't wrong afterall, it was just asked at the wrong time. If you like this company, then you should call your broker man.
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Yeah, I just felt really dumb at the time because I realized only too late what I had just done. I need to see what kind of funds I have available first.
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I could imagine what was going through the mind of the person you were chatting with.... 😕 Like is this guy a regulator, does he think we do insider trading?
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Haha yeah, I was kind of embarrassed after the fact!
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Hmmm.. When you realise you just F..d up. If you were Elon, you have been on the headline of every news house even when you didn't know you were doing something wrong... they will assume you should have done your findings
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Congrats on your first 12 shares of SMR! It's interesting that though you have been in crypto for quite some time, you still maintain your connection with traditional stocks. In my case, since the advent of the COVID variant in July last year, I disposed of all my stocks except one. The stock was a newcomer aiming to compete with the duopoly in the telecom sector.
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I have way too many traditional investments to just dump them. I've been building those holdings over a twenty plus year period. I like being diversified into both crypto and traditional investments.
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Thank you for telling me about Nuscale. I am going to look to getting some shares also. Thanks for sharing on ListNerds.
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No problem! I ended up buying some more. Before I did that I talked to my brother in law and he ended up buying some as well. He is an accountant so he has a lot more fun money to play around with than I do.
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Quite a find, @bozz! The energy sector is the new tech sector! And you are getting in at the ground floor.
The technology appears to be world leading. The Chinese as well as the French tend to focus on the big scale plants leaving the field open for SMR.
In terms of valuation, the issue price appears quite high. Good for the SPAC sponsor. Less so for the investing public.
Paying more than 20 times 2024 EBITDA appears steep. And in my experience, the initial forecasts made at the time of listing are less than reliable. They paint a rosy picture to ensure the institutional investors buy in and support the whole listing.
Maybe it is best to wait until the they have released some "real earnings" numbers and the lock-up period for the sponsors has expired before adding more.
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Too late, I already bought some. I guess I was just too excited. It's not a big deal though. I didn't invest too much and it was money I am okay losing if that ends up happening. Thanks for the awesome analysis. I'll be a bit more patient and wait for you to reply next time I have my eye on something!
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😂😎
Nuscale is impressive. I like their setup compared to the monster-sized nuclear power plants. I wish I could read their technical specifications or their Safety Analysis Report. I think they will lead a new era in commercial nuclear power.
I hope so. We need it and anything cleaner and safe than what we have is a plus.
You're certainly correct. The only aspect of any nuclear-power project that I'm concerned with is waste. You can't just put spent nuclear fuel anywhere. Like any other currently operating power plant, you're going to have to store that fuel. Commercial power plants have to store them on site, currently. Intermediate storage areas are available, however, that can reduce the inventory of used fuel. It's the long-term storage that's the problem. There are theoretical technologies that can reduce the volume of nuclear waste, but heaven only knows when that will become feasible.
I should look up the answer they gave me when I asked them about the waste. Here you go. Sorry it is so long:
thank you for your question. What's interesting is that used nuclear fuel still has considerable energy available, and could be recovered.There are existing and new technologies on the drawing boards today that can utilize this fuel. We have demonstrated that used fuel can be safely transported and stored, as needed. The NuScale design will also be able to take advantage of advanced fuel designs in development, when they are ready, which hold real promise to reduce the inventory of used fuel. In addition, the NuScale plant design incorporates proven safe, secure, and effective used fuel management systems. Used fuel is stored underwater in a stainless steel lined concrete pool for at least 5 years. The concrete pool is well below grade as is part of the reactor building; a highly robust structure designed to Seismic Category 1 and aircraft impact resistant requirements, capable of withstanding a variety of severe natural and man-made phenomena. The facility design includes on-site dry cask storage of the used fuel for the life of the facility, or until such time that the used fuel can be ultimately stored at a permanent long-term used fuel repository.
There definitely truth to their response:
The above statement is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requirement. The NRC is the federal group responsible for licensing nuclear reactors within the United States.
When spent fuel rods meet the time and power requirement for removal from the pool, they get placed into dry cask storage. I've been involved in this operation multiple times now. It's pretty amazing. They place used fuel within an intermediate container (placed inside of the pool) and lift it filled with water to a separate area.
They then pump out the water from the intermediate container with Helium and completely dry it out. Once that's done, they transfer it to the dry cask storage area and transfer the fuel from the intermediate container to a more robust dry cask (called an overpack) for storage. The reduction in radiation levels alone is staggering. From radiation levels that could kill you in seconds to just slightly above background alone.
Here's a link to a dry cask storage process if you're interested:
This statement is somewhat accurate. Yes, there are new and existing technologies, but recycling or reusing nuclear fuel isn't allowed within the United States at this time. The new and existing technologies available are used in countries like France. What I know for certain is that no commercial nuclear plant reuses or recycles fuel in the US. I don't know for certain if there are any experimental reactors here that fulfills that function.
sorry about the bum video link. i didnt know that would happen. you can look up PG&E dry cask storage on youtuve and it will come up.
No worries! Thank you!
Nuclear energy is an option that I hope that more people would accept. After decades of research, the risk of a nuclear spill is very small and we need more energy. I am not really sure how the financials are on the company but that does sound like an interesting company.
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I thought so too. I ended up buying some more of the stock. I either win or loose. Either way it should be fun to track it.
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This sounds very interesting @bozz. Thanks for sharing this information.
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No problem! Anytime!
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The article says the company is located in Oregon. You would think that the environmental nut jobs in Portland would have nuked the company before it had a chance to go public.
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Maybe they are doing something right? That could speak volumes... Then again, who really knows...
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I think modern nuclear reactors have a large place in the future of energy production here in the U.S. Most of the larger scale ones in operation today are from the 60's/70's but the newer ones are FAR safer. This could be a very smart move to invest now.
I hope so. Like I said, I have been following them for years. My brother in law even bought some stock after I talked to him about it. My broker had no clue but he was also interested.
It sounds like a good play. We desperately need to upgrade our energy grid.
So badly!
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Honestly I don't know shit about nuclear power... But this looks like a good buy opportunity.
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Interesting ... will follow your updates with interest because I like plays like this ... but I am really, really patient on them...
I ended up buying some more. My brother in law did too.
This sounds like a company worth following, for sure.
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I definitely agree!
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