Are More Nuclear Power Plants in Our Future?

CNN reports that TXU, a utility company acquired by two private equity firms earlier this year, is working to build the largest nuclear power plants in the country. Something big must be under way in Texas, because the Wall Street Journal suggests that at least three other utilities are considering building nuclear power plants in Texas.

No new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States in decades, but TXU has apparently been consulting with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan who would build the reactors, so there might actually be fire at the bottom of all this smoke.

The global warming debate has cast nuclear power into a sudden environmentally friendly light. If people are really more worried about global warming than nuclear accidents or terrorism, then the country might follow the French model which derives the vast majority of electrical power from nuclear energy.

The more capitalistic angle on this renewed interest in nuclear power questions what impact private equity has had on TXU's priorities. If private equity's ability to focus on long-term profits has allowed TXU to finally act on long simmering plans, this could have major repercussions for the economy as a whole. In a world where private equity is capable of even considering spending $50 billion for Dow Chemical, no public company is safe.

Greater willingness to take on spectacular risks will undoubtedly result in higher eventual payoffs for everyone in society, but the financial disasters will be larger too. Society just needs to make sure that the risks remain purely financial and not allow private business to avoid appropriate technological safeguards.