Monday, March 14, 2011

Japan nuclear disaster risk receding fast; General Electric's Liability Smaller than Immelt's... (GE; CCJ; HIT)

Ouch, ouch, no more shocks*, I was going to say "government pay"
From Reuters:
The risk of a major radiation leak in Japan is subsiding as stricken nuclear reactors cool, but there will be major clean-up costs and three reactors will probably be written off, experts said on Monday.
A massive earthquake and tsunami on Friday knocked out cooling systems at a nuclear plant in Fukushima, eastern Japan, triggering a race to flood reactor cores with seawater and stop radioactive uranium fuel from melting and leaking out.

A natural decaying process means that the amount of heat the fuel produces has fallen dramatically, by more than 90 percent, experts said on Monday.
That reduced the chance of serious damage, especially after workers flooded the three worst-affected reactors with seawater.

"The longer it goes on, the better the situation," said Robin Grimes, director of the Center for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London, asked about the chances of a breach of the steel core, or "pressure vessel," that contains the fuel....MORE
From MarketBeat:

Japan Earthquake: GE and the Nuclear Plant

So among the stocks down Monday in the wake of the Japanese disaster is General Electric, which is off by around 3%. The key concern seems to be potential liability related to the explosions at the nuclear power plant. Dow Jones Newswires reports that the company designed all six of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. “While it is still early in the unfolding nuclear facility crisis in Japan, we are getting many questions from investors as to what GE’s liability might potentially be,” wrote Deane Dray, a Citigroup analyst covering GE.

Dray says that any potential GE liability in this incident appears limited by something called “Channelling law.”...MORE
Earlier:
Good News on Japanese Nukes: "Cold shutdowns at Fukushima Daini " (GE; HIT; CCJ)
Corrected: Status of Fukushima Reactors March 14; 20:30 local
Fukushima Reactor Designer General Electric Down 1% (GE)
"Dude, we're all about windmills, use a little ecoimagination."
[excuse us as we practice some aversion therapy -ed]

Okay Immelt isn't an occuponymous name. It isn't. Has nothing to do with melt-down.
I won't make any more jokes....
"Uranium stocks take a thrashing" (CCJ; URA)