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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

Advanced Atomic Technologies

Can prototype nuclear reactors be licensed in the US under current rules?

December 15, 2022 By Rod Adams 13 Comments

Designers and developers of nuclear power systems that are substantially different from conventional light water reactors face a conundrum. They are required to provide sufficient information to regulators to allow them to confidently predict how the designs will behave under a comprehensive set of postulated operational and accident conditions. Proving their design is safe is a time-consuming, question-filled challenge that is even more difficult without an operating system on which to verify analysis assumptions.

STR-1 Prototype for USS Nautilus at INL

Modeling can only go so far without real data. Creating partial test loops or integrated system testing installations consumes substantial resources without exercising a supply chain useful for a full scale system. NuScale and former mPower employees can testify to the challenges.

In 10 CFR 50.2 Definitions: prototype reactor “means a nuclear reactor that is used to test design features, such as the testing required under § 50.43(e). The prototype plant is similar to a first-of-a-kind or standard plant design in all features and size, but may include additional safety features to protect the public and the plant staff from the possible consequences of accidents during the testing period.”

Aside: We’ll come back to paragraph 50.43(e) later. End Aside.

Using prototypes can be a way to accelerate development. They are common in a variety of industries that need approval from public safety regulators, most notably in the automotive and aviation industries. One might ask why it has been more than five decades since they were last used in atomic energy development in the United States.

Types of Atomic Energy Licenses

Chapter 10 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (AEA) is titled Atomic Energy Licenses. Chap 10 Section 101 states that production or utilization facilities using special nuclear material need to have licenses issued under section 103 or 104. Section 103 is titled “Commercial Licenses” and its first sentence refers to a finding under section 102.

Section 102 imposes a practical value test which says that a facility that is sufficiently developed for industrial or commercial use should obtain a section 103 license.

Section 104 is titled Medical Therapy and Research and Development. Its initial three paragraphs describe different types of licenses, (a) medical therapy, (b) facilities that can provide the information required to support a finding of practical value required in Section 102, and (c) facilities that are useful for research and development but not expected to be useful in industrial or commercial purposes. University research reactors are examples of the types of facilities that obviously qualify under paragraph c.

But a prototype facility that is designed to be used to test reactor plant designs that are not familiar to either customers or the NRC is arguably not a facility that has proven that it has a practical value. Logically, it should not be required to be licensed as a commercial facility under Section 103.

Looking at just the Atomic Energy Act, it would seem that prototypes as defined in 10 CFR 50.2 should be licensed under Section 104(b) .

It’s not that simple.

10 CFR Part 50, which is the regulatory code enact the licensing provisions of the AEA, includes statements under “Classification and Description of Licenses” that indicate that a major change was put into effect on December 17, 1970. That change removed Section 104(b) as a licensing option. There are grandfather clauses and a clause that allows section 104(b) to be used if directed by a specific law.

The change also modified Section 104(c) in a way that allows prototype reactors. It says “(c) A production or utilization facility, which is useful in the conduct of research and development activities of the types specified in section 31 of the Act, and which is not a facility of the type specified in paragraph (b) of this section or in § 50.22.”

Paragraph 50.22 contains a definition of a commercial reactor that allows a full scale prototype to use Section 104(c) as long as it operates within given limitations. A production or utilization facility “is deemed to be for industrial or commercial purposes if the facility is to be used so that more than 50 percent of the annual cost of owning and operating the facility is devoted to the production of materials, products, or energy for sale or commercial distribution, or to the sale of services, other than research and development or education or training.”

If the sale of materials, products, energy or services does not produce more than 50% of the annual cost of the facility, it is not automatically considered to be an industrial or commercial facility.

The testing schedules of prototype reactors would almost certainly preclude those devices from being able to cover 50% of their annual costs – including amortization, interest and depreciation – by selling materials, products, services or energy. That is a common feature of prototypes: no airplane developer or automobile manufacturer expects their flight test and certification planes or concept cars to be commercially viable. They consider them to be part of the development expense enabling them to sell a series of products.

I’ve been discussing this potential path for licensing non-light water reactors for at least a decade with people inside the industry, starting with a paper I wrote for my former employer at B&W mPower. Those discussions revealed either skepticism that the effort would be accepted by the NRC, a concern that it would not be a valuable way to speed the licensing process, or a desire to follow through with the mandated development of Part 53 as a new licensing path for non light water reactors.

After the NRC staff released its proposed draft of Part 53, The Breakthrough Institute issued an analysis explaining why implementing a rule based on that draft without major changes will impede progress. BTI’s Ted Nordhaus and Adam Stein also published a blog post titled NRC Staff Whiffs On Nuclear Licensing Modernization that ends with a scary conclusion:

…there is little reason to expect that the first advanced reactors will be licensed and demonstrated by the end of this decade, nor that the US will have the nuclear technologies available at scale in the coming decades that the world will need to deeply decarbonize the US and global economies.

NRC Staff Whiffs On Nuclear Licensing Modernization

Since developing a new process seems to be too hard to do correctly, it’s time to invigorate older processes that already exist.

It might be useful to take a brief detour to explore the reasons why no one is pursuing this prototype path – yet.

History of nuclear power prototypes

The US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program has long recognized the training, testing, supply chain and experience value of full scale prototype nuclear reactors, especially for system designs that are either completely new or a significant change from previously used designs.

Navy nuclear prototypes have been as much like the power plants installed in ships as possible. STR-1, the prototype for the USS Nautilus reactor, was so realistic that it was installed in a simulated submarine hull with a large tank full of water around the portion of the hull containing the reactor plant.

For about two decades after STR-1, the Navy continued building land-based prototypes for nuclear propulsion plants that were significant departures from proven designs.

Full scale prototypes can be just as useful for commercial nuclear plant vendors. The people who drafted and enacted the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 recognized the value of prototype reactors that were as close as possible to commercial designs. The Navy’s STR-1 had been operating for about a year by the time AEA 1954 was passed into law.

Until 1970, nearly all US nuclear power plants were licensed under Section 104(b) as “facilities involved in the conduct of research and development activities leading to the demonstration of practical value of such facilities for industrial or commercial purposes.”

The facilities were being purchased by utilities to produce industrially useful power stations without going through the antitrust provisions of Chapter 16 of the Atomic Energy Act. They were also qualified to receive substantial subsidies from the AEC under the theory that the new facilities would “lead to major advances in the application of atomic energy for industrial or commercial purposes.”

Part 104(b) also directed the Atomic Energy Commission, whose licensing responsibilities were transferred to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1974, to “impose the minimum amount of such regulations and terms of license as will permit the Commission to fulfill its obligations under the Act to promote the common defense and security and to protect the health and safety of the public and will be compatible with the regulations and terms of license which would apply in the event that a commercial license were later to be issued pursuant to section 103 for that facility.”

Part 104(b) licenses were useful and helped jump start the American nuclear energy industry. One might legitimately wonder what happened to force a regulatory change to remove this type of license.

Soon after the Oyster Creek nuclear power station won a commercial bid without overt subsidies, atomic energy competitors, led by the National Coal Policy Conference (NCPC), claimed that the concentrated nuclear power industry was taking unfair advantage of Part 104(b) provisions. These atomic energy competitors engaged in strong, sustained political actions designed to push the AEC to make a “finding of practical value” for light water reactors that had been sufficiently well-developed to attract utility customers.

Their argument was simple and logical – if pressurized water and boiling water reactors were winning customers and were being built as facilities that would be operating for decades as baseload power plants, then any reasonable person would consider them to be of “practical value.”

In early 1964, Joseph Moody, President of the NCPC, stated his group’s position succinctly.

There can be no question that they are of “practical value” – or else they would not be used to supply commercial power.”

Balough. Brian “Chain Reaction” Cambridge University Press 1991. p. 208

The controversy over the AEC’s practical value determination lasted 6 years and involved a number of congressional hearings and court cases. The saga fills 13 pages in Brian Balough’s exceptionally well-researched book titled Chain Reaction: Expert debate and public participation in American commercial nuclear power. 1945-1975.

One reason that the “coal boys” (Balough’s term) ultimately won the war after losing several battles was that nuclear power plants had been scaled to such a large size that the Congressional overseers of the AEC (the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy) and responsible courts agreed there was a need to perform the Justice Department’s antitrust review required by Chapter 16 of the AEA for Part 103 commercial licenses and avoided under Part 104(b).

Even the most stubborn defenders of the AEC’s policy to avoid making a finding of practical value realized that their position was difficult to justify for large, light water reactors similar to those that were being ordered at a rate of dozens per year with a peak of 7 reactors in a single month (Feb 1967) .

Prototypes can be important for non-light water reactors and advanced reactors with uniquely new design features

Unlike the large light water reactors that were being constructed on a large scale by mid 1970, when the AEC made its practical value determination for pressurized and boiling water reactors, today’s advanced reactors are several steps away from a reasonable person’s definition of “practical value.” They still qualify as prototypes.

A prototype licensing process would follow the two-step (construction permit followed by an operating license) process defined in Part 50. It is more suited for projects with expected changes in detailed design during construction and which are are unlikely to be built in a repeatable series. It’s also the licensing process that recognizes the substantial value provided by prototype reactors in § 50.43(e).

(e) Applications for a design certification, combined license, manufacturing license, operating license or standard design approval that propose nuclear reactor designs which differ significantly from light-water reactor designs that were licensed before 1997. Or use simplified, inherent, passive, or other innovative means to accomplish their safety functions will be approved only if:

(1)(i) The performance of each safety feature of the design has been demonstrated through either analysis, appropriate test programs, experience, or a combination thereof;

(ii) Interdependent effects among the safety features of the design are acceptable, as demonstrated by analysis, appropriate test programs, experience, or a combination thereof; and

(iii) Sufficient data exist on the safety features of the design to assess the analytical tools used for safety analyses over a sufficient range of normal operating conditions, transient conditions, and specified accident sequences, including equilibrium core conditions; or

(2) There has been acceptable testing of a prototype plant over a sufficient range of normal operating conditions, transient conditions, and specified accident sequences, including equilibrium core conditions. If a prototype plant is used to comply with the testing requirements, then the NRC may impose additional requirements on siting, safety features, or operational conditions for the prototype plant to protect the public and the plant staff from the possible consequences of accidents during the testing period.

(Emphasis added)

10 CFR 50

Notice that there are two alternative paths for supporting the approval of the safety functions of reactors that are not light water reactors licensed before 1997. (There is a reason for using bold print to emphasize the OR between paragraphs (1) and (2). Developers need to firmly and effectively establish their chosen path and not allow anyone to attempt to impose additional elements from the alternative path.)

The second path involves a sufficiently designed test program of a prototype plant that has extra public protection features that might include using a remote site, adding special safety features (like an over-designed containment structure) or enhancing staffing requirements.

It is nice to know that the regulations for obtaining approval for a commercial license offer the opportunity to prove reactor safety using a prototype. Unfortunately licensing experts and regulators appear to be convinced that precedence demands that full scale prototypes need commercial reactor licenses.

Why haven’t reactor designers chosen the prototype path described here?

Decisions to avoid prototypes using Section 104(c) are reasonable in a paradigm applicable to extra large nuclear plants. Owners of projects that cost $5 to $10 billion or more would suffer unacceptable losses if they had a licensing provision that prohibited them earning more than 50% of their annual costs from selling materials, products, services or energy.

That provision isn’t an unaffordable barrier for small and very small reactors, especially if the cost accounting for the prototype is fully burdened with design and development costs plus a depreciation schedule that recognizes the abbreviated lifetime of prototypes.

The revenue limitations might be a significant barrier for some SMR designers if they overlook the fact that their prototypes would be allowed to produce unrestricted income from R&D and training. Prototype owners also have the option of applying for a commercial license after their plant proves itself to be of practical value during a testing, training and verification phase as a prototype.

Note: Vendors don’t have to use prototypes. They can choose to follow paragraph 50.43(e)(1) and find customers based on obtaining license approvals from component and system testing with detailed analysis. The prototype path is an alternative route that might avoid a significant portion of the overhead of proving that the analysis was sufficiently comprehensive. End Note.

Prototypes will be one of a kind, though some might be successful enough on the first try to eventually become FOAK commercial units holding Part 103 licenses. Limitations on earning income from sales of materials, products, energy or services contained in Section 104(c) are sufficient barriers to prevent applicants from repeating the mistake in the 1960s of creating justifiable animosity by overusing the special encouragements available for non-commercial plant licensees.

Even the US Navy eventually determined that it was no longer cost-effective to build complete prototypes for new reactors that were moderate extrapolations of existing reactors.

Note: When the Navy stopped building prototypes, their training and testing functions were deemed important enough to repurpose reactors that had served their time as ship propulsion plants but still had remaining useful life. Many of today’s nuclear sailors are trained on moored training ships (MTS) that were once active submarines. End Note.

In a period with multiple advanced reactors under development, none of which have proven that they are of practical value, a smoothed path towards full-scale prototypes could be immensely useful.

To achieve this desirable result, NRC regulators must fully accept their responsibility under Section 104(c) to “impose only such minimal amount of regulation of the licensee as the Commission finds will permit the Commission to fulfill its obligations under this Act to promote the common defense and security and to protect the health and safety of the public and will permit the conduct of widespread and diverse research and development.”

Congressional direction doesn’t necessarily need new legislation. It can come in the form of hearings and required testimony along with letters that direct the NRC to follow existing laws.

It’s not too late for today’s reactor designers to make a switch to Part 104(c) license applications if they determine it is advantageous and if the NRC regulators express their support for a path that would lead to more reliable safety determinations in a shorter period of time.

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, New Nuclear, Nuclear regulations

Is nuclear reactor licensing process being improved as Congress mandated with NEIMA?

November 18, 2022 By Rod Adams 40 Comments

NRC Advanced Reactor Licensing Vision

A panel of five experts and an experienced moderator addressed the progress being made in creating effective processes to license advanced and non-LWR (light water reactors) at an ANS Winter 2022 panel session titled “Licensing the Future: How the NRC is Approaching Advanced Reactors.” Four out of five of the panelists were cautiously positive and provided descriptions of actions being taken and objectives that are still aspirational.

Kati Austgen, Nuclear Energy Institute

Kati Austgen, who is leading the Nuclear Energy Institute’s efforts to coordinate the industry’s inputs for licensing process improvements, led off the presentations by laying out achieved progress and desired outcomes.

NEI’s primary goal for this effort is a process that enables the NRC to “approve safe designs as efficiently aa possible”. Objectives that will help achieve that overarching goal include the following:

  • Streamline regulatory processes to achieve much more timely and efficient applications reviews and oversight of new and advanced reactors
  • Resolve key generic technical or policy topics well before new and advanced reactor applications are submitted for NRC review
  • Revise or establish new regulations as quickly as possible to achieve a much more modern and efficient regulatory framework

Austgen emphasized the important concept that environmental reviews, while important, must not be a barrier to the deployment of significant sources of carbon free power and heat. Her talk ended with a summary of the industry’s goals for Part 53

  • Regulatory framework that is useful and thus used
  • Risk informed
  • Technology inclusive
  • Performance based
  • Safety without unnecessary regulatory burden
  • Efficient and timely licensing approvals
  • Greater licensee flexibility
  • Long term regulatory stability (Aside:

Mo Shams, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Mo Shams, director of Advanced Reactor Licensing at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, spoke after Austgen. It was hard to disagree with his early comment even if it was meant to be in jest. “Earlier Steve [the panel moderator] asked ‘Why do we need licenses?’ I don’t know, but it gives me a job, so let’s go with that.”

He included some important words in his talk. He said that he and his team are as excited about the opportunities provided by advanced nuclear energy as anyone and said that his goal was to perform his job “in an enabling way” while remaining cognizant that he is not supposed to be an advocate. The role of his organization is to make safe use of nuclear technology possible. They want to give the public additional options and want to do their job in a way that returns value to the public.

He offered the following statement: “Our Vision: Creating new paradigms to make SAFE. use of nuclear technology possible.”

He provided some statistical details about the number of applicants in pre-application review (15), in license review (1) and who have the potential to receive operating licenses by 2027 (6+).

He briefly described the NRC’s interagency relationships and its international cooperation efforts. He talked about the progress being made, especially with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to harmonize regulations and reviews. He concluded with a discussion about actions underway to strengthen the agency by focusing on the people that make it work. Their acronym is ADAPT

  • Augment – add staff and managers at optimal staff/supervisor ratio
  • Develop – train next generation of leaders and experts
  • Analytics – drive efficiency and enable scalability
  • Plan – future scenarios with bias towards agility
  • Team – train people to work collaboratively and synergistically

Ted Nordhaus, The Breakthrough Institute

Ted Nordhaus, who spoke immediately after Mo Shams, described himself as “as a skunk at a garden party” and shared some sharply critical observations. Nordhaus, founder of the Breakthrough Institute, was introduced to the audience as the leader of an environmental NGO with the ability to provide an independent voice in wide ranging discussions about nuclear energy without having the taint of being dependent on income from the industry.

Nordhaus said that the Breakthrough Institute takes no donations from the nuclear industry and described its positions on nuclear energy as “advocating for nuclear in the public interest as a critical energy and environmental technology.”

Not only is Breakthrough able to provide an independent voice in public discussions about nuclear energy, but its representatives are also more free to level direct complaints about the NRC compared to people associated with companies that are regulated by the NRC or who plan to be regulated by the NRC. It’s well understood within the industry that it’s unproductive to upset or anger a regulator that can control your destiny.

Aside: I can testify that one can get into hot water with corporate leaders by making public comments that might offend regulators, even if the statements are true. End Aside.

Following the conventional advice to public speakers, Nordhaus began his talk with a humorous remark. Ted apologized to the NRC’s Mo Shams for disrupting his presentation by dropping his phone. “I’m sorry about my phone, I was getting it out so I could take a picture of the Part 53 Transformative [advanced reactor license] slide with its windmill in the background.” The audience and the panelists chuckled.

Nordhaus then noted that the NRC staff had recently released a Part 53 draft for public comments. He described how the document is 1200 pages long, contains many prescriptive requirements that were cut and pasted from existing regulations, moves ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) directly into the regulation from its current status as the subject of Regulatory Guide 8.10, and adds qualitative health objectives that are firmly rooted in the linear, no-threshold dose model for radiation health effects.

A survey of advanced reactor developers showed that the overwhelming majority of them do not intend to use Part 53, opting instead for either Part 50 or Part 52.

Aside: Though Nordhaus did not mention it, there were numerous critical comments submitted after the draft Part 53 was released. According to Mo Shams’s presentation, the staff had been operating for some time under the belief that they could produce a final rule by 2024, but they have pushed their stretch goal to 2025 as a result of the need to resolve the large number of comments. By the NEIMA law, the agency still has a 2027 deadline. End Aside.

From his point of view, establishing a burdensome licensing process that is not optimized for efficiently reviewing reactor safety results in “down selecting not on best designs or best business plans.” Instead it chooses winners that have the “most patient investors with the deepest pockets or the greatest talent for rent seeking and getting various sorts of federal or government support.”

Nordhaus concluded his remarks by explaining why he and his organization are so passionate about creating an effective licensing process that is focused on enabling regulators that allow radioactive material to be used to protect public health and safety, protect the environment and contribute to the common defense and security of the United States.

Every reactor that we don’t build, license or commercialize increases public health burdens associated with the electrical system. Further results in higher CO2 emissions intensity. It adds to climate risks and also increases economic and geopolitical risks by failing to commercialize economically viable advanced reactors. The result of that is increasing US and global vulnerability to price volatility associated with coal, oil and gas.

Ted Nordhaus, the Breakthrough Institute, ANS Winter Nov 15, 2022

Following Nordhaus’s sobering commentary, Drew Peebles, Sr. Licensing Manager, Kairos Power, and Travis A. Chapman, Manager, U.S Licensing — X-energy, each described their company’s licensing approach and their interactions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Drew Peebles, Kairos Power

Kairos Power is well into the process of obtaining a construction permit – the first step of a Part 50 license application – to build its Hermes 35 MWth non-power reactor at a site near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. When Kairos submitted its CPA (construction permit application) for Hermes in Sep 2021, it was the first non-LWR reactor CPA ever submitted to the NRC. Under the current schedule and the actual progress made to this point, the CP should be issued within 21 months after the application was submitted.

Aside: A CPA was reviewed and issued for the Ft. St. Vrain high temperature gas reactor in 1967, but that was approved by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) about 7 years before the NRC was created. End Aside.

Peebles emphasized that the progress that his company is making with their application review is the result of careful preparation that included an extensive period of pre-application engagement with the NRC. That engagement included submitting a detailed product and licensing roadmap so the NRC could plan the necessary review resources, and exhaustive reviews of license requirements and design criteria that would be applied to the Hermes reactor. Kairos submitted topical reports for those two key areas as well as additional topical reports for licensing areas like methodology for a mechanistic source term determination.

Kairos has an interactive design and manufacturing process where they design, build, test and revise components and systems. Their representatives often point to Space-X as the inspiration for their design philosophy. They are applying that same thought process to their licensing interactions with the NRC.

Kairos is one of the advanced reactor developers that has no current plans to use the new Part 53 process. They have found a way to their desired goal through the existing process and will evaluated the option of shifting to Part 53 after it has been issued and has “some run time.”

Travis Chapman, X-Energy

X-Energy’s Xe-100 four pack power station design was one of the two major power plant recipients of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Project. Under that program, X-Energy is tasked to begin operating its facility by the end of 2027, which is recognized throughout the nuclear community as a stretch goal that will need everything to go right the first time.

Chapman started off his presentation with a description of the Xe-100 and its technological pedigree. He pointed to the extensive testing and fuel qualification for “uranium oxycarbide, Triso-coated particle fuel” done by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Development Program.

Chapman provided a personal testimony about the NRC’s capability to understand and license high temperature gas reactors that use Triso coated fuel. He was on the NRC staff 15 years ago during preparations to review the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) and attended presentations from experts from General Atomics and PBMR. He has been involved with the industry’s continuing efforts to improve and modernize the advanced nuclear regulatory process since 2015. [You read that date correctly. Neutrons are the only thing that moves fast in the nuclear world.]

The technological maturity of the Xe-100 informed the decisions made for the licensing path chosen. Like the Hermes project, the Xe-100 licensing effort will use the two step Part 50 process.

The Xe-100 designers are confident that their plants are protected from damage that would release significant quantities of radioactive material by design based on physics, materials and dimensions. Their licensing challenge is to “prove the safety case assertions.” Chapman emphasized the word “assertions” in his presentation; until the safety case is proved and accepted, the NRC considers that its components are just applicant assertions.

Chapman’s then shared some thoughts and guidance for other potential applicants based on his interactions with regulators.

  • Regulatory certainty is correlated to the level of detail in submissions
  • Don’t be complacent based on positive regulatory feedback on high-level submissions
  • Understand the benefits and challenges of “non-negative” forms of feedback

After watching this session, I remain cautiously hopeful that the NRC licensing progress is not going to be on the critical path for the early demonstration projects. Especially under Part 50, it is possible to effectively license a construction project that can be underway while obtaining an operating license.

With careful preparation, a licensee can produce documentation, probably in the form of a topical report, that lays out the requirements and design criteria that apply to its particular form of non-LWR. A good place for new developers to start is a review of the Kairos topical reports. You can find links to those documents and the NRC’s feedback on those reports on the Kairos page of the NRC’s Pre-Application Activities for Advanced Reactors.

The NRC position is that they are well on their way to improving advanced reactor licensing by their efforts to create a new Part 53, but it’s a good idea to approach this topic with the attitude of the Show Me state.

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, ANS Winter 2022, NRC, Nuclear regulations

Atomic Show #301 – Matt Crozat, Executive Director for Strategy and Policy Development, NEI

November 11, 2022 By Rod Adams 4 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Business of atomic energy, New Nuclear, Podcast

How Hot is Cold Fusion?

August 12, 2022 By Valerie Gardner 51 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Alternative energy, Atomic Pioneers, Clean Energy, Climate change, Cold Fusion, Conferences, ICCF24, Innovation, International nuclear, Investing, Low Energy Nuclear Reactors, New Nuclear, Smaller reactors, Solid-State Energy, Venture Capital Tagged With: Anthropocene Institute, Carly Anderson, cold fusion, Florian Metzler, ICCF, ICCF24, LENR, low energy nuclear reactions, Matt Trevithick, multi-body interactions, Nucleation Capital, solid-state fusion energy

Why are smaller reactors attracting so much interest?

August 4, 2022 By Rod Adams 19 Comments

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are gaining increased attention as a major opportunity in clean power production. They are a welcome tool in the necessary transition from an energy system dominated by hydrocarbon combustion to one that produces more power for more people with dramatically reduced greenhouse gas emissions. As a partner in Nucleation Capital, a […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic Entrepreneurs, Economics, New Nuclear, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Atomic Show #298 – Marcus Seidl – Researching small modular reactors near Hamburg, Germany

July 17, 2022 By Rod Adams 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, New Nuclear, Podcast, Smaller reactors

Atomic Show #297 – Krusty – The Kilopower reactor that worked

May 19, 2022 By Rod Adams 15 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Heat pipe reactors, Podcast, Space nuclear

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

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 45 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

What makes smaller nuclear power systems so exciting?

September 21, 2021 By Rod Adams 27 Comments

Let me start by dispelling the notion that I think smaller, modular, manufactured nuclear power systems – often called SMRs or micro reactors – are the be all and end all solution to anything, including climate change or energy security. Though not THE solution, they have the potential to be a crucial, uniquely capable part […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Business of atomic energy, Clean Energy, decarbonization, Economics, Investing, New Nuclear, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

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Atomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy

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