Immelt: Nuclear “hard to justify”

General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt told the Financial Times that nuclear energy is “really hard” to justify today, compared to other energy generation options like natural gas.

Fairfield-based GE designs nuclear power plants through joint ventures with Hitachi and Toshiba. GE also develops a wide range of energy technologies, including natural gas turbines, wind turbines and photovoltaics, among others. The company is in the process of splitting its energy infrastructure division into three separate units reporting directly to Immelt.

“Oil companies ”¦ (are) finding more gas all the time,” Immelt told the Financial Times. “It”™s just hard to justify nuclear, really hard. Gas is so cheap and at some point, really, economics rule ”¦ So I think some combination of gas, and either wind or solar … that”™s where we see most countries around the world going.”

Separately, on Monday GE announced sales have topped $1 billion for infrastructure used in the Olympic Games since 2006.