As countries diminish carbon emissions, there’s going to be momentum for using nuclear as it is cheaper compared with other alternative energy options like solar or geothermal, said Jong-Yuk Kim, manager of KDB’s green-themed funds.
Clean energy will soon be viable energy, considering the pace of technology development and the upward trend of oil prices, Kim said.
KDB’s nuclear fund will track the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Nuclear Energy Index .SPGTNE which is made up of 24 of the top publicly traded companies in nuclear energy related businesses.
Uranium One Inc, Paladin Energy Ltd, and Exelon Corporation were among the companies the index tracked as of December 31, 2009.
E.ON AG, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. and Electricite de France S.A. also belong to the index.
KDB has begun a clean energy fund worth KRW18.2 billion won in 2007, tracking the S&P Global Clean Energy Index. KDB has begun a smaller KRW6.62 billion fund focusing on the water sector that tracks S&P Global Water Index.
Both indices have fallen more than 30% since April 2007.
For the fresh fund, Kim expects it to be about the size of its water fund or bigger, but no larger than its clean energy fund.
The International Atoimic Energy Agency expects the nuclear share of global electricity production will increase to 22% in 2050 from present16%. China is among the most ambitious nuclear investors, with plans to quadruple its nuclear power capacity in the next 10 years to around 40 gigawatts.
