GE, designer of Japan’s reactors, slips in trading

[kentuck]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/stocks/2011-03-15-GE-stock-Japan.htm

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GE shares fell almost 2% Tuesday to $19.61 after a 2% drop Monday, cutting its market value by $5.2 billion since U.S. markets opened Friday and after the crisis began. Wall Street analysts say GE’s exposure to liability from the crisis is minimal, because nuclear plant operators, rather than the designers, are held responsible for accidents. Yet concerns have risen about the disaster’s impact on future demand for nuclear plants.

Five of the Japanese reactors are a 1960s design known as Mark 1 boiling-water reactors. There are 23 similar ones in 13 U.S. states. Twenty-one began operating in the 1970s and two in the 1980s.

uclear opponents have criticized the Mark 1 as inferior to other reactor designs, saying that its containment systems are smaller and more vulnerable to rupturing under high pressure. Later generations of the Mark 1 have stronger and larger containment systems, says Ken Bergeron, a former scientist at Sandia National Laboratories who worked on simulations of nuclear reactor accidents.

The U.S. has 104 nuclear reactors. Most rely on pressurized-water technology, which includes larger containment systems.

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