Stay ConnectedEmmet Penney talks to experts, workers, journalists, and scholars from all over the world about nuclear energy, energy issues, culture, and society. Subscribe to the Substack to get the newsletter and the podcast sent directly to your inbox: www.nuclearbarbarians.com.
This podcast is supported by the Foundation for American Innovation.
Copyright: © Emmet Penney
This episode is dedicated to all of the light water reactor fans out there. Especially if you like your LWRs in water. Listen to this conversation with the co-founder and CEO of Blue Energy, Jake Jurewicz, and you'll understand what I mean. Jake is a utility industry veteran with a lifetime of experience on construction sites, so our discussion about how his new company is going to site SMRs on waterways and ship them by barge gets into all kinds of deployment nitty gritty: management, permitting, financing, you name it.
Craig Fuller comes from a legacy trucking family. He’s also the CEO and founder of Freightwaves, the Bloomberg of logistics. So, Craig’s the perfect guy to write an accessible primer on supply chains, which is exactly what he’s done. He came on the show to talk about the new book, Moving the World: How the Supply Chain’s Evolution Affects Us All (which you can pre-order here!). We dig into what the Covid crisis taught us about supply chains, why reshoring makes sense both economically and strategically, and how supply chains and the grid are similar.
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Zeno Power, a cutting edge nuclear company, is making batteries powered with Strontium 90 for niche deployment cases: the moon, the arctic, and the seafloor. I got to pick Zeno cofounder and CEO Tyler Bernstein’s brain about their exciting new technology, why Zeno’s work is critical in our increasingly multipolar world, and the upsides of competing with China.
This was a fascinating discussion and I think you guys are going to love it.
Not long after we recorded this episode, Zeno added former NASA chief technologist AC Charania to its team as SVP of Space Business Development.
Matt Loszak, the cofounder and CEO of Aalo Atomics, joined me to talk about Aalo’s progress rolling SMRs off the factory line. We get into Aalo’s test reactor at Idaho National Labs, a DOE path toward approving nuclear designs, how Trump’s nuclear executive orders have helped the industry, “zero power criticality,” and more.
Since we recorded this episode, Aalo has closed its $100 million Series B and has officially been selected by the DOE to test the Aalo-X reactor at INL by hitting zero power criticality. And then they broke ground on the project just a few days ago!
There are so many exciting developments in the nuclear space, I can hardly keep up. And not just in the realm of reactors. Kurt Terrani, the CEO of Standard Nuclear, joined me to talk about his new company and its ambitions for TRISO fuel. For me, this was a major download on nuclear fuel types. Kurt’s a very knowledgable dude working with a highly experienced team.
Check out Standard Nuclear on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.
On today’s episode, I spoke with Scott Lathrop, the Founder and Chief Executive Director of Native Nuclear. Like me, Scott sees nuclear power as a multi-generational infrastructure investment that serves as a sheet anchor for healthy communities and healthy economies. But he brings a distinctly native perspective to nuclear that subverts stereotypes, just like the educational work his organization is doing in tribal energy politics. I learned a lot from Scott during this interview and I know you guys are going to enjoy it!
Check out Native Nuclear on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Former navy nuke Ari Brown joined me to talk about his experience in the service. For me, his story offers profound insight into what it takes to institutionalize excellence.
Then we talk about his new company, Bellwether LLC, and how Ari is using his programming background and acoustic analysis skills to figure out how to fix machines in an innovative way.
For this episode, Joe Klecha, the Chief Nuclear Officer at The Nuclear Company, joined me to talk about his background as a navy nuke, his time working on the Vogtle build, and what it takes to pull off megaprojects. Then we discuss how TNC’s recent deal with Palantir is going to unleash fleets of new nuclear power plants.
I learned so much from this episode—Joe is a patriot, a leader, and a wealth of knowledge. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did.
On this episode, Andrew Kirima of the Texas Nuclear Alliance stops by to talk about his origins as a nuclear advocate, what’s been going on with nuclear in Texas, and how the TNA fits into the American nuclear scene.
Register for the TNA Summit this October!
Check out Andrew on X and LinkedIn.
And also check out the other nuclear project Andrew is involved with: Exodys Energy.
Nuclear Barbarians is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
In a special bonus episode, I speak with comic book writer Aubrey Sitterson about his new hard scifi geopolitical space opera, Free Planet.
This comic has it all: energy literacy, questions of science and technology, the trials and tribulations of democracy, and some incredible layouts.
I hope you guys enjoy this break from our usual programming. I encourage you to head down to your local comic shop and snatch up Issue 01, which you can read a sample of here.
Also: check out Aubrey’s Substack, Atlantis Still Sunk, which is chalk full of behind the scenes deep dives into the making of and research behind Free Planet.
Nuclear Barbarians is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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