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Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

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Nucleation Capital’s Earth Day in Atherton

Nuclear energy has been making more frequent appearances at Earth Day events around the country. Groups like Generation Atomic, Mothers for Nuclear, Climate … [Read More...] about Nucleation Capital’s Earth Day in Atherton

RECENT PAST POSTS

Atomic Show #296 – 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 … [Read More...] about Atomic Show #296 – Julia Pyke, Director of Finance Sizewell C

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Solar’s dirty secrets: How solar power hurts people and the planet

By Brian Gitt Brian's an energy entrepreneur, investor, and writer. He's been pursuing truth in energy for over two decades. First, as executive director … [Read More...] about Solar’s dirty secrets: How solar power hurts people and the planet

Nuclear energy growth prospects and secure uranium supplies

April 28, 2022 By Rod Adams Leave a Comment

Uranium Panel: Discussing a Uranium Bull Market, New Nuclear and Sentiment for a Decarbonized Future

The 121 Mining Investment event held in Las Vegas on March 30 and 31 included a panel discussion with leaders from three uranium mining companies, each of which has an asset base of potentially lucrative mining prospects mostly located in North America. The fourth member of the panel was a managing partner at Nucleation Capital, a venture capital fund focusing on opportunities in the advanced nuclear sector, including suppliers of key system components front end to back end.

The panel included a lively chat about the prospects for new nuclear power plants, life extensions for existing power plants – including some that had previously announced closures, the implications of HALEU requirements for advanced reactors and the potential for micro and small reactors to supply power to mining operations that are often located in remote, off-grid locations.

The panel included following participants:

Rod Adams, Managing Partner, Nucleation Capital; Jon Bey, CEO, Standard Uranium; Ross McElroy, CEO, Fission Uranium; Andrew Ferrier, Managing Director, Okapi Resources

Background: The 121 Group hosts a series of events designed to help growing companies, especially those focusing on raw material supply, meet with investors that are interested in the growth potential for those companies and the sectors they serve. Those conferences are called 121 Mining Investment events.

Aside: 121 is pronounced 1 to 1, not one twenty one. A key feature of the events is the opportunity for companies to schedule face to face meetings with interested investors. The booth set-up for the event in Las Vegas was different from any that I have seen before. The three walls of each booth were inflatables with a continuously running blower. They reminded me of the system used for bounce houses at birthday parties for kids. Sound isolation was impressively effective. End Aside.

Filed Under: 121 Mining Las Vegas 2022, Business of atomic energy, New Nuclear, Uranium mining

Nucleation Capital’s Earth Day in Atherton

April 26, 2022 By Rod Adams 1 Comment

Nuclear energy has been making more frequent appearances at Earth Day events around the country. Groups like Generation Atomic, Mothers for Nuclear, Climate Coalition and Young Generation in Nuclear have been actively attending Earth Day events for a number of years.

On Saturday, April 23, Nucleation Capital participated in the Earth Day celebration hosted by the Town of Atherton, CA. The event, held in Holbrook-Palmer Park, attracted an estimated 600-800 community members in addition to some 150-200 people manning the 32 exhibitor booths, an electric vehicle and an e-Bike showcase, a special Kid “Bug” Zone, an art exhibit and a whole speaker series, which had experts from Stanford University, SFO and elected officials presenting.

In past years, Atherton has educated its commuity about the critical role of nuclear power in providing clean energy with Earth Day screenings of films like Pandora’s Promise and The New Fire. This year, the town actively sought out someone to talk about nuclear and invited Nucleation Capital to participate. Dozens of attendees stopped by the nuclear energy booth hosted by Nucleation Capital and chatted with one or more of the seven folks recruited to help man the booth. Some of them were probably attracted by this Nucleation advisor’s early vintage, midnight blue Tesla Roadster, with its attention-getting license plate.

Aside: Readers, especially younger ones, might not recognize the allusion implied in the license plate spelling. I’ll let commenters provide their guesses for reasons why someone might choose the word “Nukuler” for their prestige plate. End Aside

In the heart of Silicon Valley, the reception of attendees towards nuclear was refreshingly positive. Of everyone who engaged in conversation, only three people expressed serious doubts about nuclear energy. The rest were open to hearing about the need for nuclear and advances in the technology that make nuclear suitable for 21st century clean grids.


Our tabling team consisted of Nucleation Capital members, Valerie Gardner and Jonathan Tiemann, an expert advisor, Ross Koningstein, several local fund investors and Liz Muller, the CEO of Deep Isolation, Nucleation’s current syndicate offering and a Q1 fund investment. We really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with people about the roles that nuclear energy can play in the effort to transition more smoothly from hydrocarbons to clean energy sources. And, best of all, when people asked “what about the waste?” the answer was, “Talk to Liz!” Liz’s Deep Isolation team is developing the world’s first commercial solution to deep, geologic nuclear waste storage and we showcased The Deep Isolation Story video inside our booth.

It was very exciting to have one of the world’s leading experts with us and available to discuss the prospects of solving the nuclear waste “problem” with an inexpensive and permanent solution that is embraced by nuclear communities. We also addressed the speed by which the next generation of smaller, more modular plants could be built through pre-fabrication and mass production and how they could provide both electricity and high-temperature heat for industrial processes, so as to decarbonize industrial sectors that need heat not produced by renewables. People recognized that these are critical areas to address.

It almost goes without saying, but we also talked about the opportunities for investing in advanced nuclear energy ventures. Silicon Valley is ground zero for people receptive to providing risk capital for emerging technologies. We made the case that advanced nuclear ventures have a role to play and that private equity investment is an important ingredient for the successful development and deployment of advanced nuclear systems that will eventually supplant what are now record levels of fossil fuels being burned.

A significant portion of Atherton residents have the resources to help this important technology soar and most did not realize that there are now a few ways that investors can access these exciting areas of nuclear innovation through Nucleation’s offerings.

Of course, it being California, Saving the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was also a subject of discussion during the day. We are deeply committed to doing whatever we can to help keep that valuable clean electricity generator operating for a full lifetime of 60-80 or more years. In addition to taking the opportunity to talk about the importance of extending the plant’s operating life beyond the currently planned closure, we collected dozens of signatures for the Climate Coalition’s letter to Governor Newsom to save the plant.

Earth Day in Atherton proved to be a fun and effective way for us to talk about the role of nuclear energy as a climate solution and broaden public awareness that it is a happening technology sector that is actively developing a broad array of innovative future solutions.

If you participated in an Earth Day event and took the opportunity to talk about nuclear energy, please share your story.

Filed Under: Clean Energy, Climate change, Diablo Canyon

Atomic Show #296 – Julia Pyke, Director of Finance Sizewell C

March 12, 2022 By Rod Adams 35 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Business of atomic energy, International nuclear, Investing, New Nuclear, Podcast Tagged With: Atomic Show, clean energy policy, finance, Julia Pyke, nuclear finance, Sizewell C, United Kingdom

Solar’s dirty secrets: How solar power hurts people and the planet

February 24, 2022 By Guest Author 13 Comments

By Brian Gitt Brian’s an energy entrepreneur, investor, and writer. He’s been pursuing truth in energy for over two decades. First, as executive director of a green building trade association. Then as CEO of an energy consulting firm (acquired by Frontier Energy) specializing in the commercialization of technology in buildings, vehicles, and power plants. And […]

Filed Under: Alternative energy, Biomass, Brian Gitt, Clean Energy, Climate change, decarbonization, Diablo Canyon, Electric Grid, Energy density, Health Effects, Solar energy, Unreliables, Wind energy Tagged With: Brian Gitt, capacity factors, climate change, dirty secrets, DOE, energy policy, environmental impacts, human costs, illusory benefits, renewable energy, solar energy, Texas blackouts, toxic chemicals

The Assay TV speaks with Rod Adams, Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital and Atomic Insights host

February 20, 2022 By Editor Leave a Comment

The Assay is a media project of the 121 Group, based in Hong Kong, that serves investors, fund managers and analysts who are involved with and/or investing in a wide range of mining ventures. As part of their efforts to bring a greater understanding of the complex markets that control the prospects of mining ventures, […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic education, Atomic Entrepreneurs, New Nuclear, Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Waste, Podcast, Pro Nuclear Video, Uranium mining Tagged With: 121 Group, Adam Thompson, The Assay, The Assay TV, uranium, uranium market

Atomic Show #295 – Liz Muller, Co-founder and CEO of Deep Isolation

January 24, 2022 By Rod Adams 5 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Waste, Podcast

Effects of nuclear energy’s battle for inclusion in EU Taxonomy

January 14, 2022 By Rod Adams 21 Comments

The EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities (EU Taxonomy) became law in July 2020, but the law left several decisions to be finalized in “delegated acts.” These decisions required additional technical evaluation. The treatment of nuclear energy was one of those technical issues. On December 31, 2021, a draft delegated act was published that recognized that […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Nuclear advocates overwhelm a clean energy poll with a write-in candidate

January 13, 2022 By Rod Adams 8 Comments

On January 12, 2022, the New York Power Authority posted a poll on its Twitter feed. It asked people to vote for the clean energy technology they would like more of in 2022. The poll listed electric vehicles, green hydrogen, solar and geothermal. Within a couple of hours, more than sixty users had responded to […]

Filed Under: Atomic Advocacy, Clean Energy, Nuclear Communications, Politics of Nuclear Energy

Atomic Show #294 – Mikal Boe, Core Power Founder and CEO

January 5, 2022 By Rod Adams 31 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic ships, Business of atomic energy, International nuclear, Molten salt cooled, Nuclear Ships, Nuclear workforce, Podcast

Catching Oklo — a rising star!

December 14, 2021 By Rod Adams 41 Comments

Update: On Jan 6, 2022, the NRC denied Oklo’s COA application “without prejudice.” Power published an article titled NRC Dismisses Application for Oklo Advanced Nuclear Reactor that provides a solid early summary of the action and its implications. A new generation of clean energy is on the horizon Oklo is a clean energy company that […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Investing, Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors, Micro Reactors, New Nuclear, Small Nuclear Power Plants

Atomic Show #293 – Robert Bryce – Journalist and Bird Watcher

December 4, 2021 By Rod Adams 30 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Climate change, Energy density, Grid resilience, Podcast, Solar energy, Wind energy Tagged With: 2021, Atomic Show, bird watcher, energy expert, filmmaker, Forbes, nuclear energy, Robert Bryce

Atomic Show #292 – Andrew Crabtree, Founder, “Get Into Nuclear”

November 11, 2021 By Rod Adams 17 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Nuclear professionals, Nuclear workforce, Podcast

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Rod Adams

Managing Partner, Nucleation Capital, a venture fund enabling broader investor access to a diverse portfolio of advanced nuclear energy and deep decarbonization ventures. Nuclear energy expert and former submarine Engineer Officer with nuclear propulsion plant experience. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast.

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Nuclear energy growth prospects and secure uranium supplies

Nucleation Capital’s Earth Day in Atherton

Atomic Show #296 – Julia Pyke, Director of Finance Sizewell C

Solar’s dirty secrets: How solar power hurts people and the planet

The Assay TV speaks with Rod Adams, Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital and Atomic Insights host

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