Goldman Sachs is about to go nuclear.
The gold-plated investment bank, run by CEO Lloyd Blankfein, is making a concerted push into the delivery of uranium for the first time, adding to its high-powered commodities platform.
The vaunted investment bank is predicting a big boom in the development of a new generation of nuclear-powered plants — fueled by uranium — over the next several years.
Goldman has spent years building up its commodities platform, which trades energy derivative contracts. It also owns subsidiaries that buy and sell the physical commodities, such as oil and natural gas, that are the basis for those contracts.
Few other investment banks have the wherewithal to own the physical commodities — much less the radioactive kind.
Proponents say the ability to take delivery of physical commodities is another product Goldman can offer clients and gives the bank an advantage in pricing contracts.
Goldman inherited its uranium stockpiles about a year ago as a part of a larger acquisition of London-based commodities-trading operations from then cash-strapped Constellation Energy Group.
The purchase was part of Constellation’s move to divest itself of its operations handling international commodities.
The uranium operation was mostly an afterthought until recently, when Goldman saw demand from some of its big clients — mostly large utility companies both here and abroad.
In fact, sellers and operators of nuclear power plants around the world have been gobbling up uranium assets and stakes in uranium miners at a rapid clip over the past few months.
Russia has expressed a strong appetite for uranium stockpiles. Recently, state-owned nuclear company ARMZ acquired a 50-percent stake in Canadian uranium mining company Uranium One for $610 million.