Some European countries have taken a renewed interest in coal-fired power generation after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. For instance, in Germany, there was a three-month moratorium on permit extensions on old nuclear power plants in 2011.

“Some of them were starting to rethink nuclear,” said Regina Johnson, managing editor for Platts U.S. Coal, a publication owned by the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.

At the beginning of last year, Arch Coal Inc. opened a sales office in London to sell coal from mines in all regions of the United States, including the Powder River Basin, where Arch owns Coal Creek and Black Thunder mines south of Gillette.

In June 2011, Cloud Peak Energy Inc. sent a shipment of coal to Europe for an unnamed utility to burn as a test.

The Powder River Basin coal was shipped from Wyoming by train, then loaded onto barges in the Great Lakes, following the St. Lawrence Seaway out to the Atlantic Ocean.

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