Fission heated gas turbines address MIT Future of Nuclear challenges. Easier,...
Addressing Recommendations of MIT Future of Nuclear Energy In a Carbon Constrained World The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a world renowned institution that has produced thousands of...
View ArticleML-1 Mobile Power System: Reactor in a Box
This is an August 2022 update of an article first published in November 1996 and updated in February 2019. The first update was stimulated by discussions associated with DOD’s issuance of an RFI for...
View ArticleProject Pele – Part II. Enabling technologies
Building mobile nuclear power plants will be a challenge, but successfully meeting the challenges could alter the future trajectory of the energy and fuels supply industry. ML-1 shown being off-loaded...
View ArticleWhat exploded in Russia on Aug 8? My estimate is a (chemical) booster rocket...
A cruise missile with a nuclear reactor heated turbofan engine and a liquid fueled booster rocket is the most likely description of the Russian developmental weapons system that exploded while being...
View ArticleAtomic Show #276 – HolosGen Claudio Filippone and Chip Martin
HolosGen has attacked the nuclear power plant cost and schedule challenge from the opposite direction chosen by many nuclear reactor developers. Claiming to be agnostic about the reactor specifics –...
View ArticleAtomic Show #277 – Simon Wakter, pro-nuclear engineer in an ambivalent country
Simon Wakter is a strongly pro-nuclear engineer in a country that passed a referendum officially phasing out nuclear energy since several years before he was born. He has to round up to be called a...
View ArticleTranscript: Atomic Show #278 – Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) project partners...
Atomic Show #278 transcript, lightly edited for clarity. Intro music (00:15): [inaudible] Rod Adams (00:21):This is Rod Adams and it’s time for Atomic Show show number 278. Yes, these Atomic Shows are...
View ArticleAtomic Show #278 – Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) project partners USNC, GFP and...
Global First Power (GFP), Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recently announced that they had formed a joint venture called Global First Power Limited...
View ArticleEconomy of Scale?: Is Bigger Better?
It is possible for engineers to make incredibly complex calculations without a single math error that still come up with a wrong answer if they use a model based on incorrect assumptions. (Originally...
View ArticleAtomic Show #287 – Darren Gale, VP Commercial Operations, X-Energy talks...
X-Energy is the lead recipient for one of two industry groups selected to receive $80 M in Department of Energy (DOE) funding as part of a public-private partnership program to demonstrate advanced...
View ArticleChina’s high temperature reactor – pebble bed modular (HTR-PM) achieves its...
On the morning of September 12, 2021, reactor number 1 of the eagerly awaited HTR-PM project was taken critical for the first time. Initial criticality for any new reactor is a big deal for the people...
View ArticleWhat 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,...
View ArticleWhy 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...
View ArticleAtomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy
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....
View ArticleAtomic 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,...
View ArticleWhy did the Carbon Free Power Project get cancelled? What does that mean for...
I’ll start with a disclosure. I’m still long on NuScale in my personal portfolio and have no intention of changing that position in the near future. I believe that the company has a good product and...
View ArticleAtomic Show #331 – Caleb Brooks, Kronos MMR Project lead for University of...
The University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne (UIUC) is planning to build a uniquely capable micro reactor project on its campus. For decades, the university hosted a traditional research reactor that...
View ArticleNew York’s next nuclear plant is likely to be a four unit BWRX-300 installation
On June 23, New York’s Governor Hochul announced that she had directed the New York Power Authority to build a new nuclear energy facility with at least 1 GWe of capacity. During the announcement...
View ArticleAtomic Show #343 – Yasir Arafat, CTO Aalo Atomics
Aalo Atomics is a three year old company that is focused on designing, manufacturing and deploying nuclear reactors. Their stated goal is to achieve an electricity production cost of less than $0.03...
View ArticleAtomic 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...
View Article