Elon Musk Tweets in on the Nuclear Energy Debate - 2021

Nuclear Power Industry

Elon Musk's Positions:

• "Unless susceptible to extreme natural disasters, nuclear power plants should not be shut down" tweets Tesla's Elon Musk on the back of vocal opposition to the closing of California's last nuclear power plant (more).
• With Europeans in the midst of an energy crisis, leaders across the continent have made plans to grow nuclear power capacity, while the US has been reducing its exposure to the zero-carbon power source (more).
• Just last month, Macron of France announced plans for the country to return to constructing nuclear power plants, reversing an earlier strategy of reducing nuclear power from 75% of the energy mix to 50% (more).
• As the only zero-carbon, utility-scale source of baseload power other than hydroelectric, nuclear advocates have claimed that the fuel source is the only way to electrify the vehicle fleet while reducing green house gas emissions (more).
• With Energy Secretary Granholm stating on the eve of the infrastructure bill, "carbon-free nuclear power is an absolutely critical part of our decarbonization equation" it would appear that the Biden administration and Mr. Musk agree on at least this point (more).
• Investors looking for exposure to nuclear power feedstock, namely uranium, have been tipping the scales in the physical commodity market through the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (more), while other uranium bulls have sought returns with producer equities, driving the Global X Uranium ETF up 66% YTD (more).
• Musk would likely include the fact that Uranium One (A Russian-backed company) has recently sold all of its uranium properties in the U.S. to UEC (more).
• Musk would also likely encourage Germany to restore their shuttered nuclear power plants and line up for the coming SMRs (more).