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Investing in the Next Generation of Nuclear Power

December 17, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

In this Article:

  • U.S. Department of Energy announced…
  • Talk about opportunity…
  • A new type of nuclear fuel…

The devil is always in the details.

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that scientists achieved a nuclear fusion reaction that created more energy than was used. Make no mistake: This is a huge deal. This has never happened before.

To clarify, a nuclear fusion reaction happens when two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus.

To put it simply, this is essentially the reaction that powers the sun; when properly harnessed, it can be used to create a limitless source of energy on Earth. In fact, according to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear fusion could generate 4 million times more energy than burning coal or oil…

But, of course, without the massive environmental and social burdens.

While I’ve never been a huge fan of traditional nuclear power — mostly because it remains cost-prohibitive without massive subsidies (far more than coal, gas, solar, and wind) — the promise of nuclear fusion has always been fascinating to me because it could potentially allow us to ditch fossil fuels altogether while creating energy in an economically and environmentally superior fashion.

It’s also far safer than traditional nuclear fission, which produces radioactive waste that, despite world governments' best efforts, creates an inconvenient safety and security risk that few ever want to talk about.

And, of course, because fusion is not based on a chain reaction like we see with fission, a nuclear accident is not actually possible. 

But I’m not here to talk about nuclear physics.

Instead, I’m here to talk about opportunity.

[Whitney Tilson: Gold 2.0 Tap Into the Most Lucrative Vein of the SWaB Revolution]

And as much as I love the promise of nuclear fusion, the opportunity to profit from this is highly unlikely because it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever actually see nuclear fusion happen for at least another 30 years — and that’s figuring conservatively. 

Like I said, the devil is in the details.

As reported in The Washington Post, the net energy gain scientists witnessed only happened at the micro level:

The lasers used at the Livermore lab are only about 1% efficient, according to Troy Carter, a plasma physicist at the University of California at Los Angeles. That means that it takes about 100 times more energy to run the lasers than they are ultimately able to deliver to the hydrogen atoms.

So researchers will still have to reach “engineering net energy gain,” or the point at which the entire process takes less energy than is outputted by the reaction. They will also have to figure out how to turn the outputted energy — currently in the form of kinetic energy from the helium nucleus and the neutron — into a form that is usable for electricity. They could do that by converting it to heat, then heating steam to turn a turbine and run a generator. That process also has efficiency limitations.

All that means that the energy gain will probably need to be pushed much, much higher for fusion to actually be commercially viable.

At the moment, researchers can also only do the fusion reaction about once a day. In between, they have to allow the lasers to cool and replace the fusion fuel target. A commercially viable plant would need to be able to do it several times per second, said Dennis Whyte, director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT. “Once you’ve got scientific viability,” he said, “you’ve got to figure out engineering viability.”

In other words, don’t hold your breath for nuclear fusion.

Yes, it’s absolutely fascinating, and one day it’ll be a real thing.

But it’s not going to be a real thing anytime soon, and it’s certainly of no use for us as energy investors. 

[Alexander Green: The New King of LNG]

What I do find interesting, though, is that while so many people in the media are talking about nuclear fusion this week, they’re completely clueless about the next generation of realistic nuclear power, which is likely to be one of the most profitable energy investment opportunities of our lifetime.

Utilizing a new type of nuclear fuel called “Tri-Fuel 238,” this next-generation nuclear power technology is cheaper than coal and natural gas, carbon emission-free, and, unlike traditional nuclear power plants, its reactors cannot fail.

It’s by far one of the safest, cleanest, and cheapest forms of power in the world, and the best part is there’s only one company making all this possible. 

My good friend and colleague Keith Kohl actually turned me on to this company (along with its ticker symbol) earlier this year, and let’s just say that I really like looking at my trading account these days. 

While I remain bullish on solar, wind, geothermal, and battery storage, I also know a solid opportunity when I see one. And quite frankly, if you look at the details on this new nuclear technology for yourself, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Bottom line: Nuclear fusion isn’t going to happen anytime soon, but Tri-Fuel 238 is a reality right now, and it’s going to make a lot of energy investors very, very rich.

To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth…

Jeff Siegel Signature

Jeff Siegel

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

Read more from Jeff Siegel at EnergyAndCapital.com

Filed Under: Nuclear Tagged With: Battery, Coal, energy storage, Geothermal, Jeff Siegel, Keith Kohl, Nuclear energy, Nuclear Fusion, oil and gas, Solar, Tri-Fuel 238, U.S. Department of Energy, wind power

The Real Cost of the Clean Energy Transition

January 19, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

In Focus:

  • Global Coal Consumption
  • The difference between valuation and monetization…
  • How much are we willing to pay?
  • Solutions already exist…

A reckoning in the energy sector is coming. One that is recursive and counterproductive. One that involves an increasing dissonance between intentions and actions.

It isn’t about how we will ultimately change our energy consumption, the “Big Shift” long prophesied. History's long arc will pan out one way or another. The problem is the idealized timeline we're being sold has nothing to back it up, and a chaotic transition is happening.

How much can we truly accomplish if we continue to tepidly attempt to replace historically cheap, abundant energy earlier than we absolutely have to? Can we admit how long it will take and how much it will demand of us?

We stare from one peak to another on the horizon. The path is steep and fraught with peril. We think the valley between is easy to traverse.

[The Forever Battery: Making Gas Guzzlers Obsolete]

We are woefully wrong.

Global coal consumption is surging even as it falls in developed nations.  The two nations that hold over a third of the global population — China and India — will never stop buying more coal as long as it is cheaper than anything else. It will be.

The situation with natural gas is unsustainable in many corners of the world. No one is selling into the spot or contract-based markets in any way that will move prices down where natural gas costs the most. Even then, shipping it from producers to the neediest markets involves supply lines with little excess capacity.

For similar reasons, oil is sitting around $80 per barrel with little expectation of a meaningful drop in the foreseeable future.

In spite of the rapid percentage gains for EVs and renewables, they are a mere fraction of the larger equation. Ever-increasing energy demand wears away at any gains they make. The mining pollution and baked-in costs for “zero carbon” tech has revealed many companies as shams at worst and “lesser evils” at best.

We are insatiable.

What we’re really starting to reckon with is the difference between theory and application, valuation and monetization. The transition from lab to foundry, scientists to engineers, and viability to profitability.

We face endless issues we choose not to address that are destined to delay, diminish, and thus doom. All the sweeping proclamations from marble parapets by politicians do nothing.

The problem is our “Plan B” or lack thereof. If we buy into this concept that there is a single path forward, an approved list of power sources instead of a flexible mix, we will adhere to dogma instead of demand. We will vilify what we should embrace and further entrench this hypocrisy.

[New Battery Breakthrough: Could Revolutionize the $2 Trillion Automotive Industry]

We have barely begun to stress the system we have today, and the inflation is breaking nearly everything.

We were cajoled with dulcet tones through all means of media that this could be solved by a redistribution of capital, one way or another. The tenured residents of the ivory towers were confident that there was plenty of padding for any contingency. Some chose to think it would happen through the free market. Some chose to think that government-dictated mandates would herd us to a brighter future.

Both have been proven wrong. We're learning we should have worried far more about the transition. This should not be much of a surprise. Assumptions and idealism from the top down have always been divorced from reality in the energy sector.

How much are we willing to pay? Not just in dollars or euros or rupees or yuan. How much can this transition consume as inflation, and scarcity, and the reality of day-to-day costs fall short of best case scenarios? 

These are the questions we must answer now, and few that intend to demand more of us are willing to address them or what they imply.

A society that depends on a lack of change — an assumption that what it exploits will remain static — is a decadent one.

It will cannibalize itself until it doesn’t have the energy or drive  — figuratively or literally — to follow a different path. History is replete with once vibrant and thriving times that could not persist because what seemed like constants ended up being variables.

This is the reckoning we face in 2022, then the next year, then the next. Ever-increasing until we do something, anything, to reduce the pressure in a meaningful way.

There is a real cost if we continue to fail to address the realities we face, and it increases the longer we delude ourselves.

Solutions already exist, but they need time, money, and effort. Will capital markets properly reward them? Will investors fund them and reward their progress?

That we shall see. We will fall short in many ways, I'm sure. Our track record all but proves it.

2022 can be a pivotal year for the stock market to prove it can carve a path forward for the energy sector as central planners continue to fall short. We shall see if it does.

Take care,

Adam English

[Exclusive: Company Pioneering this New Battery could be the Investment of a Lifetime]

Read more from Adam English at OutsiderClub.com

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: Adam English, China, Coal, Electric Vehicles, India, Inflation, International, oil and gas, renewables

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