When many people think of nuclear power, their thoughts immediately jump to Fukushima and Three-Mile Island. As the United States invests billions of dollars into sustainable nuclear energy, scientists at companies like NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. are striving to build safer reactors and regain public trust.
“There is a huge opportunity during this national build-back initiative of our nuclear fuel supply chain, and we want to be part of this new gold rush,” says James Walker, CEO of NANO Nuclear.
Nuclear companies looking to join in the clean-energy Renaissance need to do more than produce quality technology. They’re also tasked with helping reverse negative public sentiment and skeptical views of nuclear power.
“The goal is not just to build reactors but to give customers confidence that every part of the supply chain is American-based and secure, which is increasingly important both commercially and strategically,” Walker says.
Part of redefining the public’s perception of nuclear energy is getting the average person up to speed with how it works in the modern world.
“When the average person hears the word ‘nuclear’ they think of the big nuclear reactors, and they think of mushroom clouds, and they think of toxic waste,” says Jay Yu, the company’s founder.
What most average people don’t realize is that over the past several decades, nuclear power has evolved. NANO Nuclear and similar companies are focused on building small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, not massive power plants.
Crucially, these newer, smaller reactors primarily rely on tri-structural isotropic particle fuel, commonly abbreviated as TRISO fuel. Each TRISO fuel particle is coated with a three-layer capsule that prevents it from losing fission products.
The critical advantage of these fuel particles is that they can’t melt in a high-temperature reactor. That means in a reactor powered by TRISO fuel, a meltdown is just about impossible.
Most people unfamiliar with the progression of nuclear technology are surprised when they find out just how small and portable NANO Nuclear reactors are.
“Microreactors are even smaller than these SMRs,” Yu explains. “They’re really tiny. What we want to do is create essentially a nuclear battery, a portable nuclear battery.”
Yu illustrates a real-world scenario: “Imagine that a hurricane in Puerto Rico wipes out the whole electrical grid. Usually, you bring in generators that use fossil fuel, and emit a lot of carbon into the air. But imagine now that we roll in with our microreactor and provide an off-grid solution that enables the expedited rebuilding of entire communities”
“We would not just be solving humanitarian issues, we are doing it with carbon-free energy,” he continues. “That’s natural disaster relief. That’s one sector we could basically take over, right? We could replace all those diesel engines with carbon-free energy. When you want the average Joe to think about something, that’s the vision.”
Yu notes that the reactor Nano Nuclear is working on can operate for many decades, with few personnel, and is immune to the worst accident scenarios. Combined with the fact that the reactor needs no electrical infrastructure, this means microreactors show enormous potential for delivering power to remote areas.
Jay Yu has discovered that once most people learn more about nuclear power, they notice their fear beginning to fade. Some even start to get excited about what the future has in store.
“Historically, nuclear has been just an academic exercise, right? It’s been these big reactors,” says Yu. “We’re making it cool. We have reactors named Kronos, Loki and Zeus.”
“I’m relating to younger people, and we’re educating the public,” he continues. “We’re the coolest nuclear startup in the world now.”
