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  • Atomic Show #349 – Josh Gillespie, COO National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC)

    Atomic Show #349 – Josh Gillespie, COO National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC)

    Rod AdamsByRod Adams
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    Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was born in 1949 as the National Reactor Testing Station after the Atomic Energy Commission decided they needed a place to test controlled nuclear fission power systems. Before being taken over by the AEC, the land was controlled and used by the U.S. Navy to test refurbished weapons, up to and…

Atomic Insights Latest Posts

  • Atomic Show #348 – Abdalla Abou-Jaoude MARVEL Program Lead
    Advanced Atomic Technologies · Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors · Micro Reactors · New Nuclear · Smaller reactors · The Atomic Show Podcast

    Atomic Show #348 – Abdalla Abou-Jaoude MARVEL Program Lead

    MARVEL, a creative acronym meaning Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation, is a trail blazing reactor development program designed to help the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the nuclear industry remember how to…

  • Collage of images from Golden Era of Nuclear celebration. Images from Oklo, celebration, Aalo, Radiant, Deployable, and Antares.
    Advanced Atomic Technologies · Atomic Entrepreneurs · Atomic history · Gas Cooled Reactors · Gas cooled water moderated · Innovation · Liquid Fuel Reactors · Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors · Micro Reactors · Smaller reactors

    Celebrating the arrival of the Golden Era of Nuclear Power

    The dawn of the Golden Era of Nuclear Power in the United States was celebrated on June 25, 2026 with music, lights and inspirational speeches. A crowd of several thousand people at Idaho…

  • Atomic Show #347 – Dr. Jeff Waksman, Project Pele and Project Janus
    Advanced Atomic Technologies · Army Nuclear Program · Micro Reactors · New Nuclear · Nuclear deployment · Small Nuclear Power Plants · The Atomic Show Podcast

    Atomic Show #347 – Dr. Jeff Waksman, Project Pele and Project Janus

    The U.S. military has a strong and growing interest in using small and micro nuclear reactors as a means of reducing logistics challenges and improving operational resilience. They like nuclear reactors for their…

  • Atomic Show #346 – Greg Piefer, CEO and Founder, Shine Technologies
    Advanced Atomic Technologies · Atomic Entrepreneurs · Fuel Recycling · Fusion · isotopes · The Atomic Show Podcast · therapeutic radiation

    Atomic Show #346 – Greg Piefer, CEO and Founder, Shine Technologies

    Shine Technologies is a unique nuclear fusion company. The conventional path for nuclear fusion projects is to raise and spend billions of dollars and decades of research and development in efforts to successfully…

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The Atomic Show Podcast

The Atomic Show Podcast includes interviews, roundtable discussions and atomic geeks all centered around the idea that nuclear energy is an amazing boon for human society.

  • Atomic Show #349 – Josh Gillespie, COO National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC)
    Atomic Abundance · Innovation · The Atomic Show Podcast

    Atomic Show #349 – Josh Gillespie, COO National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC)

    Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was born in 1949 as the National Reactor Testing Station after the Atomic Energy Commission decided they needed a place to test controlled nuclear fission power systems. Before being…

  • Atomic Show #348 – Abdalla Abou-Jaoude MARVEL Program Lead
    Advanced Atomic Technologies · Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors · Micro Reactors · New Nuclear · Smaller reactors · The Atomic Show Podcast

    Atomic Show #348 – Abdalla Abou-Jaoude MARVEL Program Lead

    MARVEL, a creative acronym meaning Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation, is a trail blazing reactor development program designed to help the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the nuclear industry remember how to…

  • Atomic Show #347 – Dr. Jeff Waksman, Project Pele and Project Janus
    Advanced Atomic Technologies · Army Nuclear Program · Micro Reactors · New Nuclear · Nuclear deployment · Small Nuclear Power Plants · The Atomic Show Podcast

    Atomic Show #347 – Dr. Jeff Waksman, Project Pele and Project Janus

    The U.S. military has a strong and growing interest in using small and micro nuclear reactors as a means of reducing logistics challenges and improving operational resilience. They like nuclear reactors for their…

Small Module Reactors

SMR developments, politics, investments

  • NEI Small Reactor Forum Report – Part 1

    The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) hosted its biannual Small Reactor Forum on February 25, 2014. The agenda for the one day event included six well-organized sessions with presentations from three small reactor vendors,…

  • NuScale announces achievement of unlimited coping time

    At the Nuclear Energy Insider SMR Conference in Columbia, S.C., Dr. Jose Reyes, a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of NuScale Power, announced that his team had achieved an impressive design breakthrough….

  • Camp Century – Nuclear plant designed, manufactured, constructed & tested in less than 2 years

    Under current rules and assumptions, anyone who claims that they can design and build a power-producing nuclear reactor in less than 10-15 years is considered to be naive or hopelessly unrealistic. However, there…

AP 1000 Saga

Why one of the most advanced new reactors has been challenged.

  • One Toshiba Lesson – Organizations With Venerable Corporate Names Can Be Risky Acquisitions
    AP1000 saga · Business of atomic energy · Economics

    One Toshiba Lesson – Organizations With Venerable Corporate Names Can Be Risky Acquisitions

    There are numerous reasons why Toshiba, formerly an enormous and successful Japanese electronics manufacturer, is struggling to survive. One of the lessons available to be learned – once again – is caveat emptor…

  • AP1000 saga · Business of atomic energy · New Nuclear

    Toshiba Announces $6.3 B Writedown On A $229 M Construction Company Acquisition

    Toshiba’s chairman, Shigenori Shiga, has accepted the responsibility for his company’s financial challenges and operating losses and resigned his position as chairman and as a board member. He remains an executive with the…

  • AP1000 saga

    AP1000 granted NRC Design Certification

    The Westinghouse AP1000 reactor plant design has been awarded a Design Certification by the US NRC. The decision was published in the Federal Register on 30 December 2005 and will become final 30…

The Smoking Gun Series

Stories of fossil fuel interests fighting nuclear

  • Smoking gun: AEC told President Kennedy why coal industry was opposed to nuclear energy

    It’s been quite a while since my last smoking gun post on Atomic Insights. It may be time to revive the series to remind nuclear energy advocates to follow the money and know…

  • Power Politics – RFK Jr. Explains How Pressure From Activists to Enforce Restrictions on Coal Benefits Natural Gas

    The above clip came from a lunchtime talk that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association on July 8, 2010, during the Energy Epicenter conference. Aside: People who…

  • Jerry Taylor of Cato Institute – Fires Back at My "Smoking Gun" Accusation That He is Opposed To Nuclear Energy BECAUSE He Prefers Natural Gas

    Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, has taken the time to produce a detailed and well-referenced rebuttal to my post titled Jerry Taylor, a Fellow at the Cato Institute, founded…

Investing in Nuclear

Nuclear investments – enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy

  • Parnassus Versus Green Century: A Contrast in Styles

    Parnassus Versus Green Century: A Contrast in Styles

    Cross-posted from Nucleation Capital June, July and August of 2023 were the three hottest months the Earth has ever seen by such a large margin, it left climate scientists agog. Climate disasters are abounding apace, with the U.S. hit by 23 large-scale disasters, a record-breaking year already. In Pakistan, extreme rainfall and flooding affected 33…

  • How Hot is Cold Fusion?

    How Hot is Cold Fusion?

    The 24th International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF24) was held at the lovely and spacious Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA over four days in late July. As a venture investor looking at evaluating and investing in a wide range of advanced nuclear ventures, I was invited to participate and/or sponsor the event. While…

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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