Investopedia: Is Europe Abandoning The Atom?

With news out of Switzerland and Germany last week, it looks as though the long-term energy picture in Europe is changing in a hurry. Germany and Switzerland, two of the world's largest economies, have both announced plans to completely phase out nuclear power as an electricity source, leaving the question of how these countries will fill the power gap without choking off their economies. 


Not surprisingly, solar and wind power stocks rose on the news, but only time will tell if the companies in these markets can increase their efficiency fast enough to become viable cornerstone sources of power. In the meantime, the decisions in Germany and Switzerland are likely to ripple through the power generation market for years to come.

The Scale of the Decision
In relatively short order, both Switzerland and Germany have decided to abandon nuclear power as an ongoing source of electricity. While nuclear power has been a touchy subject throughout most of Europe for some time (especially after the Chernobyl disaster), protests accelerated in the wake of Japan's combined natural disasters and TEPCO's inability to avert serious problems at the Fukushima facility. 



To read the full piece, please continue below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Is-Europe-Abandoning-The-Atom-FSLR-KYO-STP-AMSC-SI0606.aspx

Investopedia: Nuclear Energy - The Emotion Trade Is In Full Swing

There are plenty of old sayings that advise investors to swim against the tide and invest into troubled sectors when pessimism is at its worst. That is all well and good, but precious few investors have the self-confidence and long-term focus to just ignore a 20% or 30% near-term loss on a new position. With that in mind, then, investors should certainly do their due diligence on now-troubled nuclear power stocks but let the dust settle a bit before taking on new positions.

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later
In the wake of the combined earthquake and tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan, and the resulting emergencies at multiple nuclear facilities in Japan, public fear about nuclear power is once again running high. With activists already jumping on their airwaves to exaggerate and misinform, it seems inevitable that the nuclear industry has lost whatever momentum and credibility it had rebuilt in the 25 years since the Chernobyl disaster.

Investors need go no further than the stocks of those companies exposed to the nuclear power industry. Go-to names like uranium miners Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) and Denison (AMEX: DNN) and engineering and construction firm Shaw (Nasdaq:SHAW) were among those that took a significant drop in the early trading after the disaster struck. Since then, even well-diversified names like General Electric (NYSE:GE) (which has some, but not a lot, of nuclear energy exposure) have come under selling pressure.

Please continue:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Nuclear-Energy---The-Emotion-Trade-Is-In-Full-Swing-CCJ-DNN-SHAW-EXC-GE-JASO-ES0317.aspx