Gener8

Interest in new nuclear energy generation is currently at unprecedented levels that has been unseen in the United States in decades, if not ever. Alongside this interest in generation, private and public interest in the nuclear energy supply chain is surging with billions of dollars in unlocked opportunities set to turbocharge industry, manufacturing, and services that have faced stagnation for most of our lifetimes. One of the most important but little understood aspects of the nuclear energy supply chain is the manufacturing of nuclear fuel, a manufacturing operation in the U.S. that has developed all domestic needs for decades from just three facilities to supply almost one in five Americans with their electricity needs. While significant attention both in the form of public and private investments has been focused on earlier portions of the nuclear fuel supply chain such as conversion and enrichment (refining processes that create useable feedstock material for manufacturing but have limited domestic commercial capacity), manufacturing nuclear fuel is becoming more and more a focus. Advanced reactor developers are looking to utilize new fuel forms and technologies, which have even more limited manufacturing capacity in the United States as compared to the capacity available and utilized by the existing fleet.   Creating significant new fuel manufacturing capacity will be paramount to the deployment of new nuclear technologies. Standard Nuclear aims to become one of the primary suppliers of the TRISO nuclear fuel manufacturing segment. Kurt Terrani, current CEO of Standard Nuclear and a veteran of the U.S. National Lab and nuclear developer space, joined GENER8 to offer insights and perspectives into the challenges and opportunities facing Standard as well as what the future may hold. Kurt helped level set our conversation by explaining more exactly about what nuclear fuel is and how Standard and others manufacturing processes work  The discussion also explored into how Kurt ended up at Standard, why an independent and technology-agnostic fuel manufacturer can play an important role in the future of the nuclear industry, as well as the role of increased interest by the federal government. Kurt also gave us a picture of what the next few years of activities could look like for Standard, and how the broader nuclear space will sink or swim based on the successes, failures, and progress made today.

For episode 31 of Gener8, we encourage you to utilize our visual stream as we're excited to share a documentary film that hasn't been seen in decades but is now available to us all thanks to the efforts of this episode's guest, Dr. Nick Touran. Nick is the founder and main force behind the WhatIsNuclear.com website, the Manager of Digital Engineering at Terrapower, and a man on a mission to save and revive some of the history around many of the amazing activities that took at the beginning of the nuclear age. Veriten was honored to sponsor the digitization of one of these films and Nick discussed with us how he got caught up in such an activity, why he founded his website, and what he does at at Terrapower before we dove into the film for the first time together. The film tells a bit of the story around the Armour research reactor, America's first privately-owned nuclear reactor which went online in 1956 on the campus of an Illinois university for research purposes. Nick also shared some lessons we could take from the film that are applicable to today's nuclear deployment paradigm and also shared his ambitious around further digitization efforts he plans to undertake.  For a link directly to the film Veriten sponsored the digitization of, please click here.

Episode 30 of Gener8 dives into the role of AI in nuclear technology activities with a discussion featuring Trey Lauderdale, Founder and CEO of Atomic Canyon. Atomic Canyon is using AI to reduce documentation burdens at currently operating as well as future nuclear plants and is engaged in a first-of-a-kind demonstration project at Diablo Canyon Nuclear power station. Trey discussed a little of the philosophy of where he sees the role of the AI technology in high documentation and highly regulated industries and described how his experiences founding and running a company focused on process improvement in the healthcare field has taught him lessons for the nuclear and power space. Trey also shared some thoughts about the future and where nuclear AI discussions could go more broadly as well as for future nuclear technologies.

Episode 29 of Gener8 discusses an innovative project in Texas related to the deployment of a molten salt research reactor at the Abilene Christian University (ACU) on the heels of the recent issuance of a construction permit for the project. Dr. Rusty Towell, Director of NEXT lab and Professor of Engineering and Physics at ACU, Doug Robison, Founder and President of Natura Resources, and Andrew Harmon, VP of Operations and Business Development at Natura Resources joined us to explore the project and what it means for the future of Texas as well as advanced nuclear technology. Our conversation began with what drives the need for more research reactors and research activities for molten salt reactors (MSRs) as well as the broader nuclear industry. Rusty, Doug, and Andrew discussed a bit of the history of the ACU project, the consortium participating, some of the innovations included in this project, as well as what brought each of them to the project. The conversation then turned to the commercial opportunities for MSRs beyond the ACU project, what Natura hopes to achieve in this area, and how remaining challenges for commercial deployment could be overcome or could impact future activities. Deploying the first new research reactor at a United States university in decades is a very welcome development and the implications for the future of the nuclear industry in this country can only improve with deployments like this.

Stephen Ezell, Vice President of Global Innovation Policy and Director of the Center for Life Sciences Innovation at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) joined us to share insights from a recent ITIF paper on the implications of growing Chinese leadership in nuclear energy technology for the global community (paper linked here). Stephen shared some of the history on how China has steadily committed to nuclear energy and how the priorities for that nation drive aggressive development plans for the future that are unrivaled by other nations. Our conversation further touched on the role of China in the global supply chain, how the United States might close a bit of the gap between the two nations on nuclear energy development and deployment, as well as ITIF's motivations and aims in looking at this topic. The role of China in the global nuclear development picture will certainly continue to be discussed for years to come and we hope that this conversation, as well as ITIF's report, will help inform understanding around the challenges and opportunities here.