Atomic Show #313 – Stefano Buono, Founder and CEO of Newcleo

Atomic Show #313 – Stefano Buono, Founder and CEO of Newcleo

Stefano Buono is a physicist and the successful founder of Advanced Accelerator Applications, a multibillion dollar company that pioneered the use of several therapeutic medical isotopes. After making several people very rich, including himself, he sold the medical isotope business and returned to his early 1990s field of study – nuclear fission reactors using molten…

Atomic Show #306 – Dr. Rita Baranwal, Westinghouse AP300

Atomic Show #306 – Dr. Rita Baranwal, Westinghouse AP300

Westinghouse, one of the world’s first nuclear power plant vendors, recently announced a new small modular reactor (SMR) design called the AP300. It is described as a simplified version of the AP1000, four of which are currently operating in China and two of which are in the final stages of operational testing in Georgia, United…

Atomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy

Atomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy

Last Energy is an innovative new company governed by a philosophy of avoiding the invention of anything that has not been done before. They have created a business that is laser focused on building, owning and operating small (20 MWe), modular pressurized water reactors and selling the electricity they produce under long term power purchase…

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…

Why are smaller reactors attracting so much interest?

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…

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

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

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…

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

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

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…

What makes smaller nuclear power systems so exciting?

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…

Atomic Show #288 – Per Peterson, CNO, Kairos Power

Atomic Show #288 – Per Peterson, CNO, Kairos Power

Kairos Power Is developing a truly new nuclear fission power technology. Their KP-FHR (Kairos Power – Fluoride Salt Cooled, High Temperature Reactor) combines the solid fuel form usually associated with gas-cooled reactors with the fluoride molten salt often associated with fluid-fuel reactors. For Atomic Show #288, my guest was Dr. Per Peterson, Kairos Power’s chief…

Why did the US Atomic Energy Commission kill Daniels Pile in 1947?

In January 1947, after more than a year of focused public attention and debate, the civilian U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) took control of all atomic energy matters from the Manhattan District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This takeover was a major victory for the atomic scientists and others who worked diligently to…