• Kairos Power is building a test facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to simulate a new kind of nuclear reactor.
• The reactor is small and safe, and could be used to power a chemical or steel plant, or a few linked together to power a city.
• John Muratore, a former NASA and SpaceX engineer, is running the test operation.
• Nuclear power is essential to replace fossil fuels, but has consistently flopped as a commercial proposition.
• Environmentalists are coming around to the idea of nuclear power, as it is carbon-free, fantastically safe, and has a small footprint.
• The U.S. has two big commercial reactors under construction in Georgia, but the licensing process began in 2008 and the projected cost has mushroomed to $30 billion.
• The industry has not seen fundamental innovation since the 1960s, with plants becoming increasingly expensive and public hostility growing.
• A new generation of nuclear entrepreneurs are looking to revolutionize the industry, taking inspiration from SpaceX and Tesla.
• Companies like Kairos Power, NuScale Power, Ultra Safe Nuclear, and X-energy are all working on small, advanced nuclear reactors, with the goal of mass production.
• The biggest challenge is modernizing the slow-moving federal regulatory apparatus, as well as finding risk-friendly investors and customers.
• The fight against global warming and continued reliance on oil and gas has motivated the reinvention of the nuclear industry.
• China and Russia are in the race to perfect advanced, unconventional technologies.
• Kairos Power is conducting a simulation experiment in Albuquerque to test their salt-cooled reactor.
• The company is devising a business technology to make the project faster, simpler, more efficient, and cheaper.
• Davis Libbey, a recent recruit from SpaceX, is the test director.
• Elizabeth Muller and her father founded a company, Deep Isolation, to address the nuclear waste problem by using computer-assisted directional drilling.
• Deep Isolation has won customer contracts in multiple countries and is an example of how the Big Nuclear mindset is cracking.
Published February 7, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Jonathan Rauch’s original post The Real Obstacle to Nuclear Power