Nuclear Barbarians

Late in the night on July 4th, Aalo Atomics took their test reactor critical. In this episode, Aalo’s co-founder and CEO, Matt Loszak, returned to speak with me about the company’s experience in the DOE’s reactor pilot program. The conversation took a fascinating look at moving fast and building things—from sourcing materials to cultivating mindset.

We recorded this a few weeks ago in anticipation of Aalo’s success. Needless to say I was not surprised when the team got it over the line. Huge congratulations to them and everyone else in the pilot program.

You can read more about their criticality here.

This is the first in a series of check-ins with previous guests about the unfolding nuclear renaissance. In this episode, Tyler Bernstein, CEO and co-founder of Zeno Power, returns to talk with me about Zeno’s progress (check out our first episode here). We chop it up about the importance of Trump’s EOs, NASA’s commitment to a permanent lunar base, and—wait! I’m burying the lede.

Zeno has just acquired Vallecitos Nuclear Center in California, the first commercially owned nuclear plant. Though the plant itself is decommissioned, Zeno will be using its hot cells to industrialize the production of their nuclear batteries. My conversation with Tyler made the nuclear renaissance feel all the more real.

The thumbnail for this episode is a photo of one of the hot cells; to see more (as we discuss in the episode), you can check out this video.

I'll admit, I'm a bit of a fusion skeptic. But! There are exciting things happening in the fusion industry these days. So, I brought Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, to talk to me about why things are looking up for fission's avant-garde cousin. Andrew's candor, insight, and enthusiasm made him a great guest. I had questions about everything from break-even hurdles to robotics and he handled it all with aplomb. I came away from this episode convinced that regardless of how near or far away commercial fusion may be, America should invest in R&D to try and crack it: the tech is too cool and the lessons we'll learn along the way too valuable.

In today’s episode, I got to talk about something near and dear to my heart (nuclear waste reprocessing) with Carl Perez of Exodys Energy, a nuclear waste reprocessing company. Carl is a wealth of knowledge, as you’ll hear in the episode. We discuss the basics of waste reprocessing, the history of the industry, what makes Exodys stand out, and why getting waste reprocessing right will change the world.

Check out Exodys here.

Today I’m joined by Julie Kozeracki, the Chief Investment Officer of the Energy Dominance Financing Office, which serves as the Department of Energy’s bank. We talk about her admiration for Admiral Hyman Rickover, the nature of the EDF, financing large light water reactors and small modular reactors, why the EDF’s operations are vital to a nuclear renaissance in America, and more!

I felt really lucky to speak with Julie. I’m a huge fan of hers and a major supporter of the EDF’s work.

Read more about the EDF here!