Mr. Lacy’s presentation on October 27, 2009, covered attitudes in the US financial community toward:

• The role of nuclear in US energy and environmental policy
• Perceptions and allocation of new nuclear plant risk
• Conditions for new nuclear plant financing, and
• Who will benefit the most from the DOE loan guarantee program and who may succeed without it

Key points included

1.       Recent reports of cost increases have hurt nuclear’s perception as having cost advantage

2.       Nuclear is tied with natural gas as the number two preferred source of new baseload

3.       Perceptions of public policy risk (harmful legislative and executive action at the state and federal level) continues to increase and may surpass construction risk

4.       Investors have distinct desires for the size of companies investing in new nuclear plants

5.       There is a surprising level of interest in investing without loan guarantees in rate regulated companies, and to a degree even non rate regulated companies, the key being satisfactory economic and regulatory fundamentals

The basis for Mr. Lacy’s remarks is the 2009 Survey on Attitudes in the Financial Community Toward New Nuclear Construction conducted by Lacy Consulting Group and Chappaqua Capital Consultants. The 2009 Survey is the third year for this study.