Nuclear Sales and Service

Everything old is new again. The global nuclear industry, which suffered a prolonged slump in the wake of the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island incidents, is once more on the move.

Nearly 30 nuclear plants are under construction worldwide with perhaps another 70 contemplated as countries respond to rising prices for oil and natural gas and a demand from the public to do something about emissions that are seen to be causing climate change.

China is planning to build 30 to 40 reactors over the next 15 years. Ontario, which learned some bitter lessons about the nuclear industry in the 1990s, is set to build at least two new reactors. Even oil-rich Alberta is musing about building reactors as an alternative to the natural gas used in its oil sands operation.

The heavyweights in the energy industry are forming partnerships to give themselves a better chance of claiming the billions of dollars that will be spent. Areva, which bills itself as the world’s...