The Atomic Show

The University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne (UIUC) is planning to build a uniquely capable micro reactor project on its campus. For decades, the university hosted a traditional research reactor that supported important research projects and provided operating experience. But, like the majority of university research reactors, it did not produce any useful heat or electricity. Kronos...

The Nuclear Company (TNC) describes itself as “a fleet-scale American nuclear deployment company.” TNC is a young, visionary company driven by what business author Jim Collins describes as a BHAG – “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” – in his best-selling book titled Built To Last. TNC's intermediate goal is to deploy 6 large nuclear reactors in...

The Honorable Dr. Kathryn Huff is an associate professor in the nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is the director of the Advanced Reactor Fuels laboratory and currently specializes in nuclear reactor core neutronics and multi-physics modeling. She served as the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy...

Aalo Atomics is a two year old micro reactor company founded by Matt Loszak, a serial entrepreneur, and Yasir Arafat, a skilled nuclear engineer who previously lead the DOE's MARVEL advanced micro-reactor demonstration project. Note: At Nucleation Capital, we were impressed enough with the company and the team to add it to our growing portfolio...

Deep Isolation is one of Nucleation Capital's more impactful portfolio companies because its technology can enable greater success for most of the rest of the companies – and for the entire nuclear energy sector. The company has been developing, testing and refining its systematic approach to nuclear waste disposal for a decade. Despite the fact...

Jigar Shah has had a lengthy career as an energy industry entrepreneur and strategic thinker. He founded Sun Edison and helped to create a new model for deploying solar power systems. He was part of the Carbon War Room and then founded Generate Capital to provide loans to proven technologies that had not yet achieved...

After many years as an independent journalist with an antinuclear bent, Marco Visscher began questioning his long-held beliefs. He realized that the accepted alternatives to fossil fuel were not actually reducing fossil fuel use so much as they were limiting the rate at which it was increasing. He began acknowledging that nuclear energy was a...

Jay Hakes, an accomplished author and historian, visited the Atomic Show to talk about his recently published book, Presidents and the Planet: Climate Change Science and Politics from Eisenhower to Bush. Sometimes referred to as “the untold story of climate change,” Hake's book is an enlightening jaunt through a history discovered during long days in...

Julie Kozeracki was the lead author for a U.S. Department of Energy strategy document titled Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear published in September 2024. The document was the result of a multi-agency, multi-lab effort to update a previously issued report. During our conversation, Kozeracki described how the report was informed by changes in the...

Westinghouse's eVinci is a 15 MWth, 5 MWe micro reactor. Westinghouse often refers to it as a nuclear battery. Unlike conventional nuclear power plants, eVinci uses no water and doesn't produce steam. The eVinci is not “just another way to boil water.” There are no pumps in the system that moves heat out of the...

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit on September 16, 2024 to Abilene Christian University (ACU) to build a molten salt research reactor. This marked the first university research reactor approval in 30 years. It is the first liquid fuel reactor ever approved for construction by the NRC and only the second advanced...

Urenco is one of the few companies in the world that enriches uranium. It's one of an even smaller group of enrichers that aren't owned by the Russian, Chinese or Iranian governments. It plays a key role in the western world's nuclear fuel cycle. That role became even more important after February, 2022. With the...

The Nuclear Company exited a period of operating in “stealth mode” about a month ago. That exit was sufficiently well planned and executed that it is likely that Atomic Insights readers have already heard of the company. The Nuclear Company was incorporated a year ago. Its founding team has been working diligently to build the...

Brian Gitt, the Business Development lead at Oklo, visited the Atomic Show to describe his employer's business model and current prospects. Oklo is an advanced fission and fuel recycling company with an expansive vision for becoming a competitive clean energy supplier. It plans to provide heat and/or electricity as a service from a fleet of...

Atomic Canyon is a six month old company that is developing AI tools to improve the efficiency of routine tasks associated with developing, licensing, building, owning and operating nuclear plants. Their first product, called Neutron, uses AI to modernize searching the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 52 million page collection of publicly available documents that are currently...

Emmet Penney is an unlikely, but effective pronuclear advocate. He earned his degrees in fine arts and great books and worked for several years as a professional poet – along with working in a bookstore as a way to keep paying the bills. He gradually transitioned from poetry into writing thoughtful essays on a variety...

Doug Sandridge is a lifelong oil and gas guy whose father was a geological engineer. While he was growing up, Doug lived a significant portion of his life overseas as his father's job took the family to several different locations. When it was time to go to college, Doug returned to the United State to...

James Krellenstein is a physicist, consultant and nuclear energy historian. He is currently employed as a senior advisor to Global Health Strategies. He started up their decarbonization practice with an emphasis on nuclear energy along with renewables. He was the lead author on GEH's report on ways to reduce global dependence on Russia for necessary...

Stefano Buono is a physicist and the successful founder of Advanced Accelerator Applications, a multibillion dollar company that pioneered the use of several therapeutic medical isotopes. After making several people very rich, including himself, he sold the medical isotope business and returned to his early 1990s field of study – nuclear fission reactors using molten...

Zeno Power makes cost-effective radioisotope power systems (RPS) for some of the most challenging environments in the solar system. Its systems use a proprietary package that allows a wider variety of isotopes to perform functions previously reserved for Pu-238, a rare isotope that is slowly produced at great expense. What is the value of RPS?...

Mary Jo Rogers is a trained clinical psychologist who developed her interest workforce safety cultures and leadership in the nuclear power sector while consulting and working for ComEd (later Exelon). At the time she began her work, ComEd was a perennially under-performing utility with new leaders that were committed to turning it into the best...

In the past few years, there has been a strong revival of interest in using nuclear fission energy to power space travel and planetary exploration. There have also been new developments in radioisotope thermal generators that will make them more widely available with greater energy density. Though there has been interest in using nuclear energy...

Matt Huber is a professor of geography at Syracuse University. He writes about energy, economies and the way that energy sources have influenced modern societies and economies. One of his first books was Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital (2013) which is very briefly described as follows: Looking beyond the usual culprits, “Lifeblood”...

Alyssa Hayes is a leader in the pro-nuclear movement. She is a PhD candidate in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee and she has been interested in policy making and politics since interning with her local representative when she was 14 years old. She was involved in the successful efforts to save four nuclear...

Mark Nelson has been traveling the world in an effort to help create a sustainable pronuclear movement. His focus includes both saving existing plants and encouraging the construction of new reactor in areas that have operating reactors, those that have shut down their nuclear plants and in countries that have never operated nuclear plants. We...

Westinghouse, one of the world's first nuclear power plant vendors, recently announced a new small modular reactor (SMR) design called the AP300. It is described as a simplified version of the AP1000, four of which are currently operating in China and two of which are in the final stages of operational testing in Georgia, United...

On Apr 28, the much anticipated film, Nuclear Now, will premier in selected theaters in New York, Sedona and Los Angeles. It will remain available in those venues for a week. On May 1, 2023, the film will be shown at 350 theaters across the US and Canada. The film is co-written by Oliver Stone...

Dr. Leonard Rodberg spent most of his adult life being opposed to nuclear energy. A half a dozen years ago, he abruptly changed his mind. Ever since, he has been a strong and vocal advocate for the increased use of nuclear energy. On Atomic Show #304 Len and I discuss his education, career, his changing...

Rendering of Last Energy's 20 MWe installations (Last Energy) Last Energy is an innovative new company governed by a philosophy of avoiding the invention of anything that has not been done before. They have created a business that is laser focused on building, owning and operating small (20 MWe), modular pressurized water reactors and selling the electricity they produce under long term power purchase agreements. On Atomic Show #303, Bret Kugelmass, the founder, president and CEO of Last Energy describes the path he took from earning a masters degree in robotics at Stanford, through the founding and operation of a successful drone company, to a highly respected podcast, through a non profit think tank and into a utility company that has designed a nuclear power plant that can begin operating as early as 2025 with commercial scale repetition starting almost immediately. Where some believe that nuclear fission requires highly specialized equipment, Last Energy has found that pressure vessels, pumps, piping, heat exchangers and valves of similarly high quality standards are widely available from experienced, commercial suppliers. Their systems, structures and components (SSC) use well-accepted ASME codes and standards and are often identical to the SSC that have been used for decades in chemical processing, oil and gas, and other industrial applications. Last Energy has chosen a small number of initial deployment locations, specifically in the UK, Romania and Poland. They are aiming to supply power to major industrial consumers that need somewhere between 20 and 100 MWe. They will connect to their customers "behind the meter". From the customer point of view, Last Energy power will look and act like the electricity they currently purchase from their local utility company. Last Energy systems will have approximately 2 m diameter pressure vessels that can accommodate full length fuel assemblies and standard control rods with proven drive mechanisms mounted on the reactor head. There will be fewer assemblies in the core, and they will be replaced as a whole unit every 6 years. Each plant will have a single steam generator and coolant pump. Kugelmass explains the reasons behind the company philosophy and design choices. He provides a good summary of their business model and their driving motivations. One aspect of Last Energy's plans should motivate US politicians to modify our current export control regime. Even though their plants are designed to be well within the production capability of US manufacturers, the company is studiously avoiding the production of any nuclear component in the US. Export control processes are too burdensome to be economically justifiable. I hope you enjoy the show and participate in the conversation.

Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association, visited the Atomic Show to provide an international perspective on the revival in interest in nuclear energy deployment. As the head of the organization that represents the global nuclear industry, provides education about all matters related to using nuclear technologies, and lobbies for recognition of the value that nuclear energy provides, she is uniquely able to describe what the world is thinking about building and operating a wide variety of nuclear energy generating systems. Dr. Bilbao y Leon shared valuable messages from her conversations with world leaders during the recent Conference of the Parties in Egypt (COP27) . "A very important dimension of decarbonization tends to be forgotten. When we are looking at the global north as in developed countries obviously we are focused on decarbonization, reducing emissions, energy efficiency, being more cost effective and more effective in how we use the energy that we do have.That is the transition that we are looking towards – cleaner energy. But when we are looking to the global south, their energy transition goes from no energy to energy." "You have a lot of countries saying, ok people. Yes, we want to decarbonize, yes we want to use our resources as effectively as possible, but we also – and foremost – want to achieve the standard of living that you guys are already enjoying." "More and more countries, particularly in the global south, are realizing that nuclear is truly – or could be potentially – a game changer when it comes to providing abundant, clean, affordable 24 x 7 energy – not electricity, energy – for everybody." Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association We talked about the utility of small modular reactors (SMR) in bringing nuclear energy benefits to a broader selection of energy consumers – a term that includes all of us. Aside: Our conversation took a personal side trip to a time when Sama Bilbao y Leon, then a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, was intrigued by a "crazy" talk describing the benefits of nuclear systems small enough to be called atomic engines. End Aside. We talked about the process that countries undertake when they choose to develop the capability to own and operate nuclear power plants. We speculated on nuclear energy's potential to provide the kind of "leapfrog" advance demonstrated by mobile phone technology. We also talked about ways to respond to inaccurate arguments claiming that there are no small modular reactors operating or that they are untested and unproven technologies. Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon brings a diverse resume to her job. She started her professional career as a nuclear safety engineer with Dominion, a major utility with a large nuclear plant operating arm, became an associate professor of nuclear engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University – where she played a leading role in establishing a new nuclear engineering degree program – and served in a variety of leadership positions at international organizations like the IAEA and the NEA. She holds a PhD and master's degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison,, a master's (Energy Technologies) and bachelor's (Mechanical Engineering) degrees from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. I hope you enjoyed the show. Please participate in a conversation about the topics discussed. It would also be helpful and appreciated if you could take the time to provide a review of the Atomic Show on your podcast app of choice.

The nuclear energy policy landscape in the US has changed significantly during the past 5 years. Once seen as an issue with enormous differences between the political parties, it has become one of the few topics on which both parties can have a civil discussion and agree on many key provisions in supportive legislation. Matt Crozat: NEI, Executive Director for Strategy and Policy Matt Crozat is the Nuclear Energy Institute's Executive Director for Strategy and Policy Development. He and his supporting team have played a role in helping Representatives, Senators and their key staff members to understand the value supplied by operating nuclear plants and the advanced nuclear power systems that are being developed. Some of the progress began with efforts at the state level and then proceeded to capture the attention of the national level politicians and leaders. We talked about the strong financial support provided to operating plants to keep them economically viable and about the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that will encourage and reward the deployers of new nuclear power plants. We talked about the results of an NEI survey of companies that own and operate the existing nuclear fleet that provided an intriguingly large number of expected new capacity additions between now and 2050. (Spoiler alert: Though representing a limited portion of the potential buyers, those companies expect to add enough reactors to double current nuclear generating capacity by 2050.) From: "The Path to Decarbonization:Overview of the Demand for New Nuclear." With permission from NE Efforts to ensure capable supply chains and workforce development for that kind of growth have begun, but there is a lot of work remaining to be done. We discussed the importance of committed orders to convince suppliers that investments will produce product sales and the importance of jobs to ensure that workers are convinced to invest in developing their skills and education. An important topic in our discussion was the importance of a consistent, steady effort and the extreme cost and vulnerability that can be imposed by wide swings in support that lead to bumpy, halting efforts. We talked a bit about the potential that one or more of the companies that already own issued and active combined licenses for AP1000s may recognize that their decision matrix has changed in the past 2 years, with dramatic movements upon Russia's invasion of Ukraine and then again upon passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. I'd wager that construction on those project could be organized to begin within about two years from the time the corporate board is convinced that is an investment worth the time and resources involved. For reasons of fairness and not leaving anyone out of the mentions, we did not discuss the numerous organizations and individuals that helped achieve the successful change in the policy landscape. I hope you enjoy the episode. Please participate in the discussion here with comments, questions and suggestions.

Modeled waste volumes for selected reactor designs (From "Nuclear Waste from Small Modular Reactors") Dr. Lindsay Krall is a geochemist currently working on projects characterizing the behavior of radioactive isotopes that will eventually be stored in a deep geologic repository being designed in Sweden for construction within the next decade. During a three year post doctoral period she worked under a MacArthur Foundation grant program to study the projected production of waste from small modular reactors. She received mentoring and guidance from Dr. Allison Macfarlane and Dr. Rodney Ewing, but performed most of the work as an individual researcher. As we discussed during this episode of the Atomic Show, the study topic was only marginally related to her academic and professional field. During her post doc period, she presented various stages of her work at conferences and in journal articles. She told me that those progress reports generated few questions and apparently little interest. But the final paper documenting her study results produced a minor eruption inside the world of people that are interested in the development and deployment of small modular reactors and advanced nuclear energy production systems. The paper, titled "Nuclear Waste from Small Modular Reactors" was published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. It included the discussion-provoking conclusion that "SMRs will produce more voluminous and chemically/physically reactive waste than LWRs." Aside: I question the author's choice to use the word "will" instead of "might". There are far too many uncertainties and technology-specific conditions for such certainty. End Aside. Unlike most of the thousands of study papers published in scientific journals each year, this one stimulated immediate attention with articles in mainstream outlets like Bloomberg, Reuters, The Globe and Mail, and the Register, presumably written by journalists that had access to a pre-print version of the paper. That active promotional effort was a bit of a surprise to the study's primary author, though she had been advised by her coauthors to be ready for media inquiries. Dan Yurman at Neutron Bytes published a detailed review of the paper. The study focused on three SMR designs out of the dozens that are currently under development. The three selected systems included the 160 MWth version of the NuScale Power Module, a version of the Terrestrial Energy Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) and the Toshiba 4S. Developers of the NuScale Power Module and the IMSR published prompt responses to the PNAS paper, the Toshiba 4S has not been under active development for at least half a decade. Both of the responses challenged the study's decision to use obsolete versions of designs that are still evolving and have not yet been built. They challenged some of the paper's assumptions about neutron leakage and stated that it cannot be computed with simple volume-related equations. One statement from the paper received particular attention from Terrestrial Energy. “Molten salt- and sodium-cooled SMRs will use highly corrosive and pyrophoric fuels and coolants that, following irradiation, will become highly radioactive.”Correction of Factual Errors in PNAS Article “Nuclear waste from small modular reactors” No reactor design proposes to use pyrophoric fuels and sodium coolant activity levels are generally low enough to allow it to be handled as low level waste. One of the key study decisions received little attention in the widespread coverage about the study's critical conclusions. For reasons of simplification, resources and study duration, the authors chose to ignore recycling, reuse, dilution and reprocessing, even though all of those waste reduction techniques are being actively researched as part of the DOE's advanced reactor development program. This study also neglects to consider reprocessing, recycling,

Dr. Chris Keefer is one of the busiest and most successful nuclear energy advocates working today. He is a Canadian emergency room doctor, the founder of Doctors for Nuclear Energy, the founder and host of the Decouple podcast, the founder of Decouple Media, and the founder and President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy (C4NE). And to think, just a few years ago, Chris was a free thinking progressive who had only thought negatively about nuclear energy if he bothered to think much about it at all. We talked about his journey from a tribal antinuclear thinker – one who thought negatively about nuclear because most of the people they knew did – to an openly and consistently pronuclear advocate who believes that nuclear energy plays an important role in our present and an increasingly vital one in our future. As the Crown corporation's sole shareholder, the province of Ontario requested Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to determine if it could safely continue operating the Pickering nuclear power plant. On September 29, 2022, OPG announced that planned to keep the Pickering nuclear plant operating for at least one more year. It also announced that it would conduct a new evaluation to determine if refurbishing the plant for an additional 30 year period was justified. Chris and his team at C4NE declared that September 29 should now be called Pickering Day. OPG requires approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for its revised schedule. The CNSC, which employs a rigorous and transparent decision-making process, will make the final decision regarding Pickering's safe operating life. OPG will continue to ensure the safety of the Pickering facility through rigorous monitoring, inspections, and testing.Province of Ontario news release titled "Ontario Supports Plan to Safely Continue Operating the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station" Over the past several years, C4NE fought what was initially a lonely battle to save Pickering and to prevent Ontario from dramatically increasing its use of natural gas to supply electricity to Canada's most industrialized province. As it continued to show up to various meetings, events and even parliamentary sessions, C4NE accumulated a following that included other advocates, plant workers, union organizers and local business leaders. They reminded people that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission had approved a plan to refurbish Pickering before the 2009 closure decision. They pointed out that the energy market had changed dramatically since that decision, which was made in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008 and at a time when "cheap natural gas" seemed to be clean and infinitely available. We also discussed the coincidence that OPG announced it was open to keeping Pickering for 30 more years just three days after it announced a dam-breaking deal with Microsoft to begin selling clean energy credits sourced from its nuclear and hydro-electric fleets. That deal should be the first of many announcements from major tech companies that have made pledges to power their data centers with clean power on an hour by hour basis, constantly matching demand with supply. This is an evolution and an improvement over the trading system of exclusive "renewable" energy credits where companies purchase enough credits so that their total energy demand is matched by the total energy production of sources like wind or solar that are not likely to be producing power to supply demand at the time that the demand occurs. Aside: Atomic Insights has an article in the works to more completely describe the clean energy credit deal and the system that Ontario is developing to track and trade the credits. Look for that article to appear here in the near future. End Aside. Chris and I then ranged into a number of other topics focused on Canada's nuclear energy leadership and its opportunities to prosper in the continuing Nuclear Renaissance. (Please remember,

Reactor Internals by Marcus Seidl Marcus Seidl is a German nuclear professional who received his PhD in nuclear physics in 2002, a year after his home country decided that it would exit nuclear energy in favor of investing in a large roll out of renewable energy sources. He has worked for German utility companies, for a vendor erecting a state-of-the-art high neutron flux research reactor, and is now employed by PreusseneElektra as a nuclear physicist. He also teaches part time at Technische Universität München | TUM · Department of Nuclear Engineering. During our discussion, any opinions he expressed were his alone. He does not represent his employers. As a researcher, he recently started a project called Unique Safety Features and Licensing Requirements of Small Modular Reactors | Frontiers Research Topic (frontiersin.org). A self-described "traditional utility guy" he considers any reactor that generates considerably less than 4,000 MWth to be a smaller reactors. During our pre-show correspondence, Marcus shared the following commentary explaining his interest in researching safety and licensing of smaller reactors and reasons why they address particular challenges associated with conventional extra-large reactors. I am a traditional utility guy – which means that every reactor which generates noticeably less than 4000MWth is a “small” reactor. Especially in the US there is a distinction between small modular reactors, micro reactors and advanced reactors. From my perspective they are all “small”. In part this adjective is also justified because most of these designs are expected to be mass produced or consist of prefabricated modules and hence cannot be of the same size as a traditional LWR. The reason why I initiated the ‘special research' topic: the issue of energy security and climate change are two important factors which currently favor nuclear: it is a compact source of energy (you can easily build up strategic fuel reserves) and it has a small CO2 footprint. So, why are we waiting? Why are there still doubts that nuclear power can help solve these issues? It is not the sole solution, it is not a silver bullet, but it can be part of the solution. From a conservative utility perspective traditional LWRs would be the most reliable bet. For some reasons big, complicated infrastructure projects are out-of-favor today. SMRs have many new design details and confidence must be built that they are safer, more reliable and easier to license.   Therefore the “research topic” intends to put current research into perspective: we have great experience from many years of traditional LWR operation, we have learned from earlier, advanced reactor concepts and today we have many modern engineering tools. This should be a good basis to fulfill the promises of the next generation of reactors. In my opinion it is important to understand the history of reactor development, to demonstrate that compared to earlier designs and methods we justifiably can be more confident to bring the technology to its next level. And SMRs are not just scaled down versions of bigger plants. They are small in order to make the core damage frequency much smaller than that of their bigger brothers. As a scientist I am a fan of radical honesty and transparency: reactors are just machines which are an optimized solution for a specific problem. Certainly, there will be failures and setbacks. If a machine encounters conditions for which it was not optimized, it likely will fail. Compared to the risks our fathers took more than 50 years ago, we are now in a much better position. This is why I am optimistic that a new generation of reactors and higher safety standards are possible. Nevertheless, these are complex technological products and they are full of surprises and also “small” reactors will not fully fulfill expectations. No reason to worry, this is the way evolution works: engineering is a sequence of problems,

Krusty Core showing heat pipe arrangement Patrick McClure and David Poston successfully developed, obtained funding, constructed and operated a new atomic fission power source that produced useful quantities of electricity during the period from 2014-2018. That puts them into a rarified, perhaps unique position. Few US-based technologists have been through that process in the past 40 years. Aside: Without some way to frame the statement so it excludes the US Navy it isn't accurate to say no one else has accomplished this feat. End Aside Patrick and David – and their supporting team – developed and operated the Kilopower reactor, also known as KRUSTY. That name comes from a creatively framed acronym – Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY. The proposed application for the system is to produce power for space missions that cannot be accomplished using either solar collectors or radioisotope thermal generators. The former imposes operational constraints with both intermittency factors and increasing distance from the sun. The later uses rare isotopes with limited heat production that constrain individual power devices to a thermal output of approximately 300 W when the device is new. In brief, Krusty was a tiny reactor that was operated at a power level of 5 kWth to produce the equivalent of 1 kWe using Stirling Engines qualified for space travel. Heat pipes arranged around a solid UMO alloy annular core transferred heat from the reactor to the hot end of the Stirling engines. The cold side of the engines were designed to radiate heat into the vacuum of space. Reactor reactivity was adjusted using a movable beryllium reflector on the outside of the core. A boron carbide rod in the center of the annular core provided a second means of controlling the reactor. The core was 10 inches tall and had an outside diameter of 4 inches. The center annulus for 2 inches in diameter. Aside: Past tense is the accurate way to describe Krusty. The system, including the core used, no longer exists. End Aside. The program cost $18 M and took 3.5 years from initiation to final testing. It was funded partly by NASA and partly by NNSA. We will be publishing a more detailed description of the technology and the development process in the near future, but for now, please listen to the show. If the audio program stimulates questions or comments, please join in a conversation here. If you are intensely curious and cannot wait for our coming post, you can learn more about Krusty by visiting Space Nukes Technical Papers.

Julia Pyke, Director of Finance, Sizewell C Sizewell C is a project to build a 3,200 MWe power station consisting of two EPR units on the site that currently hosts a single large pressurized water reactor (Sizewell B). With the exception of site-specific foundations and structures, the new power station will be a copy of the station currently under construction at Hinkley Point C. Like Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C will be capable of supplying approximately 7% of the UK's annual electricity requirement. It will be able to run at full power for 90% (or more) of the hours in the year. By following Hinkley Point, Sizewell will be a much less risky project. Trades have been trained, construction kinks have been worked out, supply chains have been created, managers have gained experience, and designs have been completed and tested. As a result of this "derisking" (using the lingo of project managers) Sizewell C will be a more affordable endeavor that should begin saving customers money from the time it first begins operating. But that expectation is unlikely to be fulfilled if the project has to be financed in the same way as Hinkley Point C, where the long construction duration and the inability to recover financing costs during construction has resulted in a situation where 70% or more of the total project cost is paid out in interest and return on investor risk capital. On this episode of the Atomic Show, Julia Pyke, the Director of Finance for the Sizewell C project, explains how the regulated asset base (RAB) model will enable Sizewell C to be economically financed and built. In the weeks since we recorded this episode of the Atomic Show, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has increased the importance of making it possible for Sizewell C participants to reach a final investment decision. Approval of the RAB model will be a major step forward in moving this project towards completion. It is a shovel-ready project that will help fill growing vulnerabilities in the UK's energy supply. It's not a quick fix, but it will be a durable one. Please participate in the discussion here. I hope you enjoy the show.

Liz Muller, CEO Deep Isolation Deep Isolation is a young company developing solutions for "the nuclear waste issue." They have built their solution option based on highly developed technologies used in the oil and gas drilling sector. Several decades ago, after discussing and evaluating several options, the world's scientific and political communities came to a general consensus around the notion that certain categories of byproducts from nuclear technologies in power, industry, medicine and defense should be permanently isolated from the human environment in deep geological formations. Nearly all of the specific solution concepts evolving from that consensus involved large mined repositories. As envisioned in most countries, deep geologic repositories would be large enough to store a large portion of their waste. They planned to develop just one or a very small number of repositories. For many reasons, most countries have had difficulty implementing their envisioned solution. Only a handful have progressed to the point of choosing a location and only one, Finland, is nearing the point of commissioning their facility and starting to dispose of their nuclear waste. Addressing nuclear waste using oil and gas drilling technology About a half a dozen years ago, Richard and Elizabeth Muller looked at the world's nuclear waste problem through a new lens. Richard knew about the rapid developments in drilling technologies that had enabled the US natural gas industry to become most productive supplier in the world. He thought about the ability to steer drill bits into selected layers of rock and about the long horizontal laterals being created, some with lengths measured in miles. It seem to Richard and Liz that modern drilling techniques could be applied to reduce the complexity of developing mined repositories for nuclear waste. Additional research led the pair to form Deep Isolation, a world leader in the concept of using directional drilling to create small modular repositories (SMRs, if you will) that could be a right-sized solution for countries with small waste inventories and for distributed solutions in countries with large inventories. One of the major advantages of using distributed deep boreholes is that they can be developed in locations that minimize the number of ton-miles needed to move the material from its current safe resting place to a permanent (but retrievable) disposal location. Transportation is not only costly, but it's an activity that provides opponents with multiple opportunities to interfere, insert delays, add costs and tie up processes in legal battles. Developing a complete solution set Deep Isolation knows that many of the challenges that have slowed the development of nuclear waste repositories will not disappear as a result of their technological development. It's not a magic wand that will eliminate opposition or convince communities that they should meekly accept the role of storing used nuclear fuel – aka nuclear waste. They recognize that one or more deep boreholes are only components of a complete solution. Though steadily developing the physical and technical capacity to license and build modular repositories, Deep Isolation is focusing on engagement activities that will build trust, understanding and perhaps acceptance. In the best case, full understanding and trust could result in open invitations from a welcoming community that sees benefits in hosting their facilities. Deep Isolation is engaged with communities, NGOs, national and local governments. They've completed several studies and have more underway. They are in discussions about the potential of a multinational demonstration that is more comprehensive than the demonstration they completed in 2019. This is the second Atomic Show featuring Liz Muller. While reviewing some of the basics of her company and their technological solutions, this show focused more on providing an update of ...

Mikal Boe, courtesy of Core Power Mikal Boe has spent 30 years in and around the commercial shipping industry. Several years ago, he began wondering how his industry was going to meet the increasingly stringent rules for air pollution and CO2 production that were being implemented by governing regulators, especially the International Maritime Organization (IMO). His extensive technical research led him to recognize that nuclear energy was the only available technology that could supply the power and energy requirements for competitive ships and also meet ever tightening regulations on their emissions. But he also recognized that moving from the established technology of efficient, rugged, well-proven diesel engines was going to take time and would only happen if founded on solid groundwork. Included in that evaluation was an understanding of the need for open, honest, and inclusive conversations with a wide range of stakeholders. Founded in 2018, Core Power is focused on commercializing nuclear energy products that customers want to buy because they are the best available solution to their needs. Cost plays a role, but so does capability, acceptability, environmental footprint, and longevity. Core Power's leaders have determined that the technology that is best positioned to meet the needs of their target market is the molten chloride fast reactor. In partnership with TerraPower as the technical lead and Southern Company as an experienced owner/operator, Core Power is participating in the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor project. Under a Risk Reduction grant in the US DOE's Advanced Demonstration Reactor Program (ADRP), the team will be developing and constructing a Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) a zero or low power reactor using the materials and salt mixtures that will be used in full scale products. On this episode, Mikal Boe explains how he and his team made their choices and how they plan to take a step by step approach to achieving their goal of giving the commercial shipping industry a viable, competitive nuclear propulsion option. When you listen, you will hear Mikal describing what might initially appear to be a counterintuitive initial step in the process of demonstrating and refining ships using nuclear propulsion to its full advantage. One aspect of their plan must be emphasized – it involves a dramatic change in the current model of crewing, building, and maintaining ocean going vessels. Even though their overall costs will win many competitive battles, the accounts that make up those costs will be substantially shifted and prioritized. Comments are always appreciated. Disclosure: Nucleation Capital –where I am a managing partner – is so enthused about Core Power's prospects for success that we joined their recent fundraising round as the only participating venture capital fund. (There were several larger investors that are not venture capital funds.)

Robert Bryce talking about Power Hungry Robert Bryce is an admired journalist, book author, filmmaker, public speaker, Congressional witness and podcaster who has focused on energy, power and its implications for mankind's prosperity. In his free time, he loves to watch birds. He recognizes that electricity is the lifeblood of modernity. He is saddened by knowing that there are billions of humans on Earth who have such limited access to electricity that their consumption each year is less than an average American refrigerator. Starting with Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego and the Death of Enron in early 2004, Robert has published six books on energy with the latest being A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations. He wrote that last book while he was also recording and producing Juice: How Electricity Explains the World. He would like everyone to watch his movie and has made it freely available through several outlets. He also asks that people buy his books – he excuses everyone from reading the books as long as they buy them. In June of 2020, Robert started the Power Hungry podcast and continues to release new episodes with fascinating guests at a furious pace. Robert and I talk about his work, his passions, and the difficulty of writing a book and creating a movie at the same time. We talked about his recent testimony at Congressional hearings about the growing fragility of our energy system due to what our mutual friend, Meredith Angwin, has labeled the fatal trifecta of energy policy decisions – oo much reliance on imports, too much reliance on gas and too much reliance on renewables. I think you will enjoy this discussion. Please leave a comment and engage in discussion about the important points that Robert made. PS - there is a point in the show when Robert turns the tables and begins to interview me about recent progress at Nucleation Capital. We are bullish about the growing recognition that nuclear energy is a vital tool and that advanced nuclear energy development is an enormous opportunity for solving many sticky problems.

Andrew Crabtree is a former professional rugby player and banker who decided to transition to the nuclear industry in 2007. He had recognized that the banking industry was going to be in for a rough time. In other words, he was able to read the handwriting on the wall just before the financial crisis that everyone else began to notice by mid 2008. Andrew tells us about his choice to get into nuclear, skills he brought from banking and professional rugby and about his recognition of the professionally welcoming nature of the nuclear technology profession. He describes what motivated him to create Get Into Nuclear, initially as a web site but now a growing and vibrant community that provides visitors with abundant information and employers with ways to reach prospective employees. As a UK-based nuclear project manager who has also spent a good deal of time working in other European countries, Andrew has seen a number of different nuclear programs. He is happy to be working in a country that has an active program for building new reactors, event though his personal career path has involved more decommissioning support work than work in supporting new nuclear power stations. He praises the work of young generation groups, the Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG), the Nuclear Industry Association – UK (NIAUK) and individuals who are investing time, energy and money into telling others about nuclear energy and the benefits it brings to people, regions, countries and humanity. We hope you enjoy this show. It's been far too long since the last Atomic Show. As always, your comments are appreciated. We wouldn't bother to do this show if we thought that no one was listening.

Fermi Energia is an Estonian company whose mission is to provide its home country with an independent, clean, safe and affordable electricity production system by 2035. That system will be anchored by base supply from small modular nuclear reactors. It is a lofty mission for a small company in a country whose land mass and population is roughly the size of the state of Maine and whose current electricity supply system is dependent on oil oil shale burning power plants with a small, rapidly varying portion of energy from wind turbines. On the web page where Fermi Energia explains why it believes Estonia needs nuclear, there is a graph of its wind power generation as measured each hour during 2018 and an explanation for the mismatch between this pattern and electricity consumption. Kalev Kallemets, born and raised in the Estonian countryside during its days as a Soviet satellite, has a keen understanding of his country's history and its people. He has significant experience as a political leader and broad education in engineering and business. He joined me for lively, informative and entertaining Atomic Show. Kallemets has gathered a compact group of like-minded people; there are about a dozen members of the team. They working with numerous partners to create an fertile environment for new nuclear plant development, including a regulatory system and strong public interest and acceptance of nuclear energy. They are leading with the benefits, but also helping people to understand the responsibilities that come with becoming a country whose power comes from atomic fission. Fermi Energia is led by people who have a keen understanding of the value of nuclear energy and a realization that there are a wide range of technological capabilities under development. The four currently leading the evaluation process are GE-Hitachi's BWRX-300, NuScale's NuScale Power Module, Terrestrial Energy's IMSR, and a high temperature gas reactor being developed by Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC). The company knows that no matter which technological choice is made, the key to success will be the planning and development effort that must be invested to create effective projects with the kind of social license needed to support superior cost and schedule performance. One measure of Fermi Energia's early success is its recent social media-enabled fund raising round to provide the seed capital needed for the important planning stage. Kalev describes how the early goal for its Funderbeam campaign was doubled to €1 million after they obtained an early indication of interest in their development effort. When that campaign was officially opened, it was completely subscribed in less than an hour. That indication of real, committed interest led the company to double its goal again before closing the finance round with what it considers to be an adequately strong balance sheet. The successful financial raise has not changed the company's frugal spending habits; the founders have a keen sense of corporate responsibility and personal ownership. They know they still have a long way to go before they are producing revenue from the products of the nuclear power systems they are planning to build. During Atomic Show 291, Kalev talks about the Estonian energy supply situation, its relationships with its Baltic neighbors, the importance of Lithuanian and Poland, the still fresh memory of Soviet occupation, and the vision of a clean, safe, affordable, secure, and reliable power system anchored by modern atomic power stations. As always, I encourage you to comment, ask questions, and engage in productive discussion. I think you will enjoy hearing Kalev talk about his company's exciting efforts to produce a bright future for his country.

Nuclear energy professionals are credible sources of information about a powerful technology that can help address climate change and contribute to humanity's development. Voices of Nuclear is an international non-profit group that seeks to empower nuclear supporters, both professionals in the industry and allies outside of the industry, with tools, organization and effective messages. Myrto Tripathi, the founder and chair of Voices of Nuclear, visited the Atomic Show to tell us more about her group and its efforts to tell the nuclear energy story. She describes the current situation in Europe, where there are a handful of new reactors under construction, there are numerous reactors being closed and there is a solid front of opposition from several prominent EU member states – particularly Austria and Germany. She explains how the European reaction to the Fukushima event – now almost ten years ago – helped to convince her to leave a successful career in the nuclear industry to play a bigger part in the civil society discussion about its role, especially in light of the growing threat of climate change. She talks about the role of young people, primarily under the age of 35, in bringing their vibrant, optimistic energy to the Voices and she discusses the challenges that her group faces in obtaining necessary and useful financial support from the established industry. She also mentioned the importance of retired people in sharing their stories about pride in their life's work in developing and operating clean nuclear generation facilities. We spoke at length about the successful, well-funded and carefully planned efforts by nuclear energy opponents to spread misinformation and fake news about nuclear and how those efforts have helped to silence nuclear energy supporters. We spoke about the disappointing state of public misunderstanding as illustrated by a recent poll taken in France in which 86% of the respondents between 18-34 years old said they believed that nuclear energy contributed to the problem of climate change. With their diligent efforts over a number of decades, nuclear opponents effectively created a "taboo" around nuclear. They made it politically and economically costly for ambitious leaders in both government and in commercial enterprises outside of nuclear to publicly take a supportive position. One reason I invited Myrto to be a guest on the Atomic Show was that I sense there are many in the US who believe that the nuclear grass is greener on the other side of the Atlantic. At the moment, the situation in Europe is tenuous and could use a strong public engagement effort. Voices of Nuclear is working hard to be a positive part of that effort. They have a base of talented volunteers, but they could use all the additional support anyone wants to offer. It would be especially useful, if your time is more constrained than your resources, to support their efforts financially. Myrto did not ask me to say that and might even be a little mad at me for making the statement, but changing people's minds isn't easy or cheap. Please join in the conversation.

Pro-nuclear advocates generally agree that there is a large and growing need for new nuclear power plants to meet energy demands with less impact on the planet and its atmosphere. There is frequent, sometimes passionate discussion about the most appropriate reactor sizes, technologies and specific uses. Atomic Show #289 is a lively discussion among some of the world's most focused experts on the topic of nuclear plant costs and the relationship of costs to sizes and deployment concepts. Guests include: Kirsty Gogan - co-founder of Energy for Humanity, Managing Director of Lucid Catalyst and Co-Founder of TERRAPRAXISEric Ingersoll - co-founder of Lucid Catalyst and co-founder of TerrapraxisNick Touran - creator of WhatisNuclear.com and advanced reactor design engineerChris Keefer - President of Canadians for Nuclear, founder of Doctors for Nuclear Energy, host of the Decouple podcast and the We CANDU It PodcastJessica Lovering, co-founder and co-Executive Director of Good Energy Collective We reached several conclusions. Nuclear can be expensive but it doesn't have to be expensiveSeries building programs can successfully reduce construction and manufacturing costsSeries building programs that keep crews together on the same site for unit runs of 4, 8 or even more units have an established history of success.Factory manufacturing is an intriguing prospect that might best be applied to nuclear plants by using shipyards for production and delivery.Seismic isolation techniques can enable systems to be more location agnostic and limit the amount of redesign required for new locations.There is room for innovation and new ideas in nuclear.Smaller nuclear systems can make the technology more accessible and more widely acceptable. Long held beliefs about nuclear in terms of risks, public acceptance, and needs for isolation and security deserve to be challenged.Some believe that the more experience you have with nuclear, the better you will appreciate its benefits and capabilities. Your comments and reactions are welcome and add value to this publication.

Per Peterson in R-Lab with ETUDE, the scaled water test version of the Engineering Test Unit now in construction in AlbuquerqueImage provided by Kairos Power Kairos Power Is developing a truly new nuclear fission power technology. Their KP-FHR (Kairos Power - Fluoride Salt Cooled, High Temperature Reactor) combines the solid fuel form usually associated with gas-cooled reactors with the fluoride molten salt often associated with fluid-fuel reactors. For Atomic Show #288, my guest was Dr. Per Peterson, Kairos Power's chief nuclear officer (CNO). Per explained the technical logic leading his company to make its ground-breaking choices. Before describing process of making technical choices, Per provided a brief summary of the KP-FHR technological development history. The FHR originated in a conversation with MIT's Dr. Charles Forsberg and later became the subject of an integrated research program between MIT, University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Peterson's academic home at University of California's Berkeley campus. As Per was careful to point out, the program was primarily funded with Department of Energy (DOE) academic research grants and involved a number of both graduate and undergraduate research students from each of the participating institutions. This type of project grant program is aimed at giving students practical design experience and providing purpose for experiments, equipment design and testing. Sometimes, as in the case of the FHR, members of the research team recognize that they have a product that can be commercialized because it has characteristics that are superior to similar products in the market. Three members of the FHR integrated research project team, Per Peterson, Ed Blandford, and Mike Laufer founded Kairos Power in 2016 as a venture-funded Silicon Valley company to refine their ideas and commercialize the technology they had helped to develop within the academic setting. In 2018, I talked with Ed Blandford and Per about Kairos Power, this show is part of my promise to provide updates on an intermittent basis. Brief description of the KP-FHR The nuclear fission heart of the KP-FHR is a pebble-bed reactor with 4 cm diameter fuel elements that each contain thousands of TRISO fuel particles in a graphite matrix. Fission heat generated in the reactor is moved by a pumped flow of fluoride salts through a heat exchanger that transfers the fission heat into nitrate salts similar to those used in concentrated solar thermal power systems. The nitrate salt is pumped through a second heat exchanger (steam generator) that functions as a water boiler to produce steam with temperature of 585 ℃ and pressure of 19 MPa. As Per explained, that combination of temperature and pressure is equal to the most modern coal fired steam plants. In fluoride salt the fuel elements have a slight positive buoyancy. To provide long operating periods without a large amount of excess reactivity at the beginning of core life, the KP-FHR includes an online fueling system that removes pebbles at the top of the core and replaces them with fresh or slightly used pebbles at the bottom. The pebbles move slowly and have very low frictional contact with each other in the bath of molten salt. The reactor operating temperature is approximately 1000 ℃ lower than the temperature at which the TRISO fuel particles would begin releasing even small quantities of fission products, giving the reactor a broad thermal margin. As Per described it, the pebbles are so relaxed that they are almost meditating during their residence time in the molten salt. What happened to the gas turbine concept? Some listeners might remember that Kairos Power initially planned to use a Brayton cycle heat conversion system with the potential for using natural gas co-firing to produce peak power. Like many academic ideas, the system that looked good on paper or on computer screens turned out to be more complex and difficult to dev...

X-Energy is the lead recipient for one of two industry groups selected to receive $80 M in Department of Energy (DOE) funding as part of a public-private partnership program to demonstrate advanced nuclear power plants on an aggressive time table. Its primary partner in the endeavor is Energy Northwest, which currently owns and operates the Columbia Generating Station in eastern Washington. Energy Northwest will be the owner and operator of the demonstration power station, which will consist of a four-unit installation of X-Energy's Xe-100 high temperature gas cooled reactor. Each unit is designed to produce 80 MWe, resulting in a power station output of 320 MWe. Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program The award is part of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which also includes two additional development pathways with longer horizons. The $80 M in FY 2021 funds is a down payment that will provide funds for completing detailed design work and beginning the licensing process. Future appropriations will be required to complete the projects; the funding opportunity announcement for the program included an award ceiling of $4 B to be shared among three different development pathways. For Atomic Show #287, I spoke with Darren Gale, X-Energy's Vice President for Commercial Operations. Darren is the company executive with direct responsibility for executing the company's contract with the Department of Energy and delivering on the promise to design, license and construct an advanced nuclear reactor power plant. The ADRP has an aggressive target date for beginning to deliver electricity to the grid is the end of 2027. During our conversation, Darren explained how his company is positioned to deliver on its promise. Xe-100 Design history We spoke about how X-Energy has been working on its high temperature pebble bed reactor design for more than a decade. X-Energy was founded in 2009 by Kam Ghaffarian, a successful entrepreneur who founded Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT) in 1984. Dr. Ghaffarian remains the owner of X-Energy, but is being joined by additional investors. The design is mature and the company has been engaging with the NRC for several years. It expects to be able to submit a license application within the next year or two; part of the uncertainty includes determining the most appropriate and streamlined licensing pathway. The Xe-100 is a helium-cooled, high temperature pebble bed reactor that has a number of similarities to the Chinese HTR-PM. They share a common heritage tracing back through the South African HTGR program and to the German AVR demonstration reactor. As Darren explains, the Xe-100 includes a number of refinements in its fuel design and in its fuel handling system that enable more efficient fuel use. Another design difference is that each Xe-100 reactor/steam generator modules are connected to its own Rankine cycle steam turbine. In the HTR-PM design, two reactor/steam generator modules feed a single larger turbine. The 80 MWe power output selection was influenced, in part, by the availability of off-the-shelf steam turbine power plants. Unlike light water reactors, the Xe-100 will produce steam at temperatures (565 ℃) and pressures (16.5 MPa) used in modern supercritical steam systems. Like the HTR-PM, Xe-100 reactors are continuously fueled while operating, eliminating the need to schedule refueling outages. There will still be a need to periodically shut down the reactor for inspections and steam turbine maintenance. X-Energy expects that there will be more requirements during the early years of operation while the company and the regulator gain experience and understanding of operational effects. Eventually, though, the company expects to achieve somewhat higher than average availability than conventional reactors that require unavoidable outages for refueling. Project location The project will be built in eastern Washington...

Chris Wright is the CEO of Liberty Oilfield Services, which recently became the second largest US company performing the work of drilling and completing oil and gas wells in shale formations. He is a leader in the field of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well drilling, having been involved in the revolutionary technology development since the days when George Mitchell was stubbornly experimenting in the Barnett Shale. Among those who focus on the energy industry and attempt to understand its current situation in order to gain some insights into the future, the growing natural gas supply in the US gets a lot of attention. Cheap natural gas gets credit for a steady drop in annual US CO2 emissions as it has pushed a growing amount of coal out of the market. That same product – cheap natural gas – has also been blamed for reducing revenues enough at a number of existing nuclear plants to push their owners into closing the plants for economic reasons. Despite successful efforts to reduce operating costs at those plants, shrinking top-line revenue from selling electricity into low-priced wholesale markets means they do not make enough money to meet corporate goals. After hearing Chris Wright on Robert Bryce's excellent Power Hungry podcast, I realized it would be worthwhile to invite him onto the Atomic Show to provide a deeper explanation of the revolution in natural gas production. Chris gets into some deep technical details about how technology has dramatically improved in his field. He explains how competition and a relentless focus on providing a better product has driven that improvement. He is justifiably proud of the benefits that his industry has provided to the world, but he also provides some important support and advice to people who are working to improve nuclear fission energy. It might surprise many, including some of Chris's colleagues, to learn that Chris describes himself as a huge supporter of nuclear fission energy. He provides some compliments and some tough love for those of us who are working to improve the technology's chances of competing and serving customer needs. I think you will thoroughly enjoy listening to Chris's thoughts about energy and its importance for human development and prosperity. As always, I'm interested in hearing what you think. I'm pretty sure this show will provoke some deep thinking in what might be completely new directions, so I'd like you to share some of those thoughts.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a stretch goal of completing its next research and test reactor by the end of 2025. It has assembled a team that includes several other major universities, national labs, and industrial partners. It has selected the MMRTM, a product that is being developed by USNC (Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation), for its ability to meet most of a long list of important attributes that will support a wide range of university research and development goals. For this Atomic Show, I spoke with Dr. Katy Huff, Dr. Caleb Brooks – both of whom are on the UIUC engineering faculty – and Mark Mitchell, the USNC executive leading the MMR development program. They explained the history of their visionary project and provided the basis for their firm belief that they can license and build a new research and test reactor within the next five years. Why does UIUC need a new reactor? The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has a long tradition of leadership and innovation in nuclear science, technology and engineering. For 38 years (1960-1998) it proudly operated the Triga-Mark II research reactor to support student development and to contribute to the advancement of nuclear science and technology. But that valuable asset was, like so many US research reactors, decommissioned during the Dark Ages of US nuclear power development in the 1990s. By the end of that decade, student enrollment in nuclear engineering and science majors had dropped to near the fiducial level, there were few, if any prospects for new nuclear power projects, and federal support for nuclear research had been completely eliminated in during several budget cycles. Universities didn't see any reason to keep supporting research reactors, so they shut them down. But concerns about fossil fuel sustainability and climate change have helped to renew global interest in nuclear energy development and deployment. Students are again selecting nuclear focused majors and are developing new ideas about ways to use nuclear technologies to improve the human condition. Even though student interest in nuclear has been growing in the US for at least 15 years, university research reactor shutdowns have continued and no new ones have been built. Leaders in nuclear at UIUC decided several years ago that they need to take aggressive action to address the growing challenge of increasing student population and fewer physical reactors for them to use in their education, research and professional development programs. Why the MMR? Why now? University research reactors have always been modest in their thermal power capability, and they have generally been designed with passive safety features that make them appropriate for student learning and management. Even though the 15 MWth MMR is designed to provide useful power and electricity, it is also designed to be extremely safe without operator action. With its molten salt heat storage separating the nuclear reactor heat source from the adjacent plant heat conversion system, it is also designed for flexibly shifting its production from electricity to heat or to other useful products. That flexibility is attractive to a large university that has a variety of student research endeavors along with a large physical plant that includes on-campus power and heat generation. Like many US universities, UIUC has a district heating system that supplies more than 200 buildings with steam heat. The total load during winter months is more than 50 MWth. In addition, the university power plant supplies 50-75 MWe from a growing assortment of renewable energy systems as well as the coal and natural gas that provide the majority of the power. UIUC students have expressed a great deal of interest in moving their university away from fossil fuels and have targeted their campus steam and power supply as something that needs an emission-free replacement.

Meredith Angwin has become an authority on the arcane topic of governing electric grids in the United States. She's concerned and thinks others will may share her concern when they recognize there is a key missing element in grid governance. There is no organization or individual that is responsible for making sure that electricity is generated, transmitted and delivered to customers. Various organizations, often with competing or conflicting interests, have shared responsibility for different parts of the system that includes generators, transformers, switchyards, transmission lines, distribution lines and billing systems, but "the market" has been assigned the responsibility of supplying wholesale electricity. And that market is not the free market, but instead is a hybrid that is governed by an ever changing stack of layered rules where many of the important decisions are made by participant groups that do not include customers or even enabled representatives of customers. A growing portion of the grid's electricity is dependent on free, but uncontrolled natural flows. Another portion comes from generators whose fuel is delivered by capacity-limited pipes in a "just in time fashion." When the natural flows are interrupted or something interferes in the pipelines's capability to deliver fuel, generators stop producing power. There are processes that can be called into action, but costs can skyrocket in times of scarcity. Some market players thrive in times of crisis and have few incentives to ensure those crises never arise. Meredith has produced an accessible, clearly written book that reveals important aspects of a complex topic. It deserves to be on the reading list for people who are interested in electricity. It belongs in the library of every congressional and senatorial office. At least one person in each staff should be assigned the task of reading it and preparing a report for their member. Governors and state level legislators might want incorporate lessons revealed in the book and reconsider their decisions to rely more heavily on markets than on well-regulated monopolies with an obligation to serve. Meredith is a delightful guest who brings the wisdom of a long and productive professional career to her writing and speaking engagements. I'm pretty sure you are going to like this show. As always, I invite you to participate in the discussion thread.

Jessica Lovering, Rachel Slaybaugh, and Suzy Baker founded and lead Good Energy Collective, a policy research organization that is actively "building the progressive case for nuclear energy as an essential part of the broader climate change agenda." Inspired by the dynamic leaders and new organizations that are successfully making the case that addressing climate change is an imperative that demands immediate action, they determined that now is the time to build coalitions and join forces with others who share similar concerns. They recognized that nuclear energy is often left out of discussions, and they believed that needed to change. They have each been studying and working in nuclear energy fields for a decade or two and understand that it is fundamentally capable of supplying the clean, abundant, reliable and affordable energy that should be more equitably available to everyone. But they also recognized that "nuclear" needed to look very different from the image that it currently creates when the word is spoken or written. Not only is there a need for additional new technologies and designs that make nuclear energy accessible to broader applications and a greater diversity of customers, but methods used to talk about nuclear energy need to be improved and modified to suit current times. Old ways of doing things need to be altered in recognition of past failures, real and perceived. Though they believe there is a continuing role for large nuclear power plants that can serve the needs of densely populated cities, they also know that the spectrum of communities and customers is so large that it demands a wide variety of solutions. They are devising and promoting new ways of engaging with people who might eventually choose to use nuclear technology to address their energy needs. But before that happens, they have to learn, trust and accept. They want to help create situations that have better chances of success because entire communities are supportive and encouraging. Good Energy Collective was officially launched in August 2020, but it has been busily publishing reports, stimulating discussions and developing coalitions. Its leaders do not believe there is any time to waste. They are highly motivated to make rapid changes that will enable a better story to be told about the future of nuclear energy. Please listen carefully to these amazing women tell their story and share their plans to modernize nuclear energy products, projects and perceptions.

Dr. Chris Keefer Chris Keefer is the creator and host of the Decouple Podcast. He is an emergency room doctor whose activist bent and desire to make the world a better place has led him to become a nuclear energy proponent. Chris is the founder and a director of an organization called Doctors for Nuclear Energy. One of his biggest current efforts is serving as the co-director of #SavePickering, an initiative open to all who want to save and refurbish the Pickering nuclear power plant in his native Ontario. That plant is a 6 unit facility currently rated at just under 3 GWe. It is one of the primary tools enabling Ontario to have one of the cleanest electricity grids in the world, with almost no contributions from any fossil fuels. But it is currently scheduled to be closed. As is often the case in North America, most of Pickering's electricity production will be replaced by generators that burn natural gas. Chris and I chatted about our shared interests in nuclear energy, protecting nature and empowering humans to achieve greater prosperity. We agreed that increasing access to clean, reliable, abundant electricity is a key to achieving our goals. I think you will enjoy the show. Please let us know what you think by participating in the comment thread.

Paris Ortiz-Wines Global Coordinator, Stand Up for Nuclear Paris Ortiz-Wines wants you to Stand Up for Nuclear Energy. She is the global coordinator for the annual, month-long event that includes actions in several dozen locations around the world. On this episode of the Atomic Show, Paris explains how she came to be a pro-nuclear activist, why she believes nuclear energy is an important enabler of human prosperity, and why she believes that technology and prosperity are good for both people and the environment. I think you will enjoy our conversation. I trust it will inspire you to learn more about the actions that are happening all around the globe. Even if you must do it from your home, please Stand Up For Nuclear and show your support of this important technology.