US commission questions AEHI accuracy
15 December 2010
UPDATED: This item has been updated to include comments from AEHI.
The US Security and Exchange Commission has temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc (AEHI) because of concerns about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information.
Trading in securities of the company, which cites construction of a nuclear power plant in Payette County, Idaho as its primary initiative, has been temporarily suspended from 14 to 28 December. The commission says that the move has been taken because of questions that have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information including that concerning the status and viability of funding to build a nuclear reactor. Other areas cited by the commission include information on the stock sales of "certain AEHI officers" and executive compensation.
"The commission cautions brokers, dealers, shareholders, and prospective purchasers that they should carefully consider the foregoing information along with all other currently available information and any information subsequently issued by the company," it warns.
AEHI said that the commission had notified it that the inquiry should not be construed as an indication that any violations of law had occurred. The commission had not notified AEHI whether the suspension was prompted by the submission of any specific complaints. "We plan to fully cooperate with the SEC and to address the concerns that they have raised," AEHI CEO Don Gillispie said in a press release.
The announcement comes just days after AEHI announced that it had received final rezoning approval from local planning and zoning authorities for its proposed nuclear power plant site in Payette County, Idaho. Gillispie at the time described the decision as "monumental". In its release celebrating "the first decision of its kind regarding a western US greenfield nuclear site in 33 years and the first rezone ever of a greenfield site for an independent company," the company said it anticipated that it would start collecting environmental data in the first quarter of 2011 in preparation for the submission of a construction and operating licence application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
AEHI signed a letter of intent to build, own and operate a nuclear power plant at Bruneau, Idaho in January 2007. The postulated plant was originally intended to provide power to help with local irrigation needs and the possibility of its also being used to co-produce ethanol from locally produced grain was mooted. The same year, the company announced that it had secured staged private funding for the plant and went on to announce that it had selected Areva's EPR reactor design for the site. At the time the company linked with the Unistar consortium, although that relationship appeared to have reached an end by mid-2008. A different site, 15 miles from the first, was announced for the project in June 2008.
AEHI's press releases for 2010 so far (there are 90 to date) begin with a January 2010 announcement of the expectation that the company was about to secure a deal to import South Korea's APR1400 reactor for construction at sites in Idaho and Colorado and end with a 13 December public plea to the US government address its energy policy. Early November saw the company announce the signature of a $150 million funding deal with Georgia-based Roswell Capital Partners, designed to fund the initial phase of the Payette nuclear power plant project.
As well as its flagship project to build a nuclear power plant in Idaho through its Idaho Energy Complex subsidiary, AEHI also boasts a subsidiary dedicated to nuclear-powered water desalination (Green World Water), and Energy Neutral, which offers franchises to construct energy-efficient homes. Earlier this year, AEHI signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyperion Power Generation Inc of New Mexico to launch a joint venture to build and market Hyperion's 25 MWe sealed modular reactors around the world.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News