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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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Atomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy

December 9, 2022 By Rod Adams 7 Comments

Rendering of Last Energy’s 20 MWe installations (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 agreements.

On Atomic Show #303, Bret Kugelmass, the founder, president and CEO of Last Energy describes the path he took from earning a masters degree in robotics at Stanford, through the founding and operation of a successful drone company, to a highly respected podcast, through a non profit think tank and into a utility company that has designed a nuclear power plant that can begin operating as early as 2025 with commercial scale repetition starting almost immediately.

Where some believe that nuclear fission requires highly specialized equipment, Last Energy has found that pressure vessels, pumps, piping, heat exchangers and valves of similarly high quality standards are widely available from experienced, commercial suppliers. Their systems, structures and components (SSC) use well-accepted ASME codes and standards and are often identical to the SSC that have been used for decades in chemical processing, oil and gas, and other industrial applications.

Last Energy has chosen a small number of initial deployment locations, specifically in the UK, Romania and Poland. They are aiming to supply power to major industrial consumers that need somewhere between 20 and 100 MWe. They will connect to their customers “behind the meter”. From the customer point of view, Last Energy power will look and act like the electricity they currently purchase from their local utility company.

Last Energy systems will have approximately 2 m diameter pressure vessels that can accommodate full length fuel assemblies and standard control rods with proven drive mechanisms mounted on the reactor head. There will be fewer assemblies in the core, and they will be replaced as a whole unit every 6 years. Each plant will have a single steam generator and coolant pump.

Kugelmass explains the reasons behind the company philosophy and design choices. He provides a good summary of their business model and their driving motivations.

One aspect of Last Energy’s plans should motivate US politicians to modify our current export control regime. Even though their plants are designed to be well within the production capability of US manufacturers, the company is studiously avoiding the production of any nuclear component in the US. Export control processes are too burdensome to be economically justifiable.

I hope you enjoy the show and participate in the conversation.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/AtomicShowFiles/atomic_20221208_303.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:06 — 32.1MB)

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Filed Under: International nuclear, New Nuclear, Podcast, Pressurized Water, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

Atomic Show #302 – Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, Director General, World Nuclear Association

December 2, 2022 By Rod Adams 5 Comments

Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association

Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association, visited the Atomic Show to provide an international perspective on the revival in interest in nuclear energy deployment.

As the head of the organization that represents the global nuclear industry, provides education about all matters related to using nuclear technologies, and lobbies for recognition of the value that nuclear energy provides, she is uniquely able to describe what the world is thinking about building and operating a wide variety of nuclear energy generating systems.

Dr. Bilbao y Leon shared valuable messages from her conversations with world leaders during the recent Conference of the Parties in Egypt (COP27) .

“A very important dimension of decarbonization tends to be forgotten. When we are looking at the global north as in developed countries obviously we are focused on decarbonization, reducing emissions, energy efficiency, being more cost effective and more effective in how we use the energy that we do have.That is the transition that we are looking towards – cleaner energy. But when we are looking to the global south, their energy transition goes from no energy to energy.”

“You have a lot of countries saying, ok people. Yes, we want to decarbonize, yes we want to use our resources as effectively as possible, but we also – and foremost – want to achieve the standard of living that you guys are already enjoying.”

“More and more countries, particularly in the global south, are realizing that nuclear is truly – or could be potentially – a game changer when it comes to providing abundant, clean, affordable 24 x 7 energy – not electricity, energy – for everybody.” Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association

We talked about the utility of small modular reactors (SMR) in bringing nuclear energy benefits to a broader selection of energy consumers – a term that includes all of us.

Aside: Our conversation took a personal side trip to a time when Sama Bilbao y Leon, then a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, was intrigued by a “crazy” talk describing the benefits of nuclear systems small enough to be called atomic engines. End Aside.

We talked about the process that countries undertake when they choose to develop the capability to own and operate nuclear power plants. We speculated on nuclear energy’s potential to provide the kind of “leapfrog” advance demonstrated by mobile phone technology.

We also talked about ways to respond to inaccurate arguments claiming that there are no small modular reactors operating or that they are untested and unproven technologies.

Dr. Sama Bilbao y Leon brings a diverse resume to her job. She started her professional career as a nuclear safety engineer with Dominion, a major utility with a large nuclear plant operating arm, became an associate professor of nuclear engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University – where she played a leading role in establishing a new nuclear engineering degree program – and served in a variety of leadership positions at international organizations like the IAEA and the NEA.

She holds a PhD and master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison,, a master’s (Energy Technologies) and bachelor’s (Mechanical Engineering) degrees from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

I hope you enjoyed the show. Please participate in a conversation about the topics discussed. It would also be helpful and appreciated if you could take the time to provide a review of the Atomic Show on your podcast app of choice.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/AtomicShowFiles/atomic_20221130_302.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:16 — 45.3MB)

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Filed Under: International nuclear, New Nuclear, Podcast, Politics of Nuclear Energy

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

Atomic Show #300 – Dr. Lindsay Krall, “Nuclear Waste from Small Modular Reactors”

October 28, 2022 By Rod Adams 11 Comments

Dr. Lindsay Krall is a geochemist currently working on projects characterizing the behavior of radioactive isotopes that will eventually be stored in a deep geologic repository being designed in Sweden for construction within the next decade. During a three year post doctoral period she worked under a MacArthur Foundation grant program to study the projected […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Waste, Podcast, Smaller reactors

Atomic Show #299 – Dr. Chris Keefer, C4NE

October 5, 2022 By Rod Adams 4 Comments

Dr. Chris Keefer is one of the busiest and most successful nuclear energy advocates working today. He is a Canadian emergency room doctor, the founder of Doctors for Nuclear Energy, the founder and host of the Decouple podcast, the founder of Decouple Media, and the founder and President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy (C4NE). And […]

Filed Under: Atomic Advocacy, Clean Energy, Podcast

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

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

March 12, 2022 By Rod Adams 41 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

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

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

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Atomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy

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