Nuclear generators’ shares are falling on concerns they will face greater scrutiny and new regulations as Japanese utilities try to prevent meltdown at a number of reactors.
Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear operator, is down 2.9 percent, to $41.91, in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. PSEG is down 3.2 percent, to $3.36, and Entergy has dropped 5.6 percent, to $69.58.
Entergy’s Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim, Mass., nuclear plants use the same GE Mark 1 containment building designs as Tokyo Electric has at its Fukushima Daiichi plant, where two containment buildings exploded because of hydrogen buildup, but the reactors remain intact. This could make it more difficult for nuclear plants to expand operations.
