Managing Editor’s Note: Don’t forget to go here to sign up with one click for Jeff’s Hyper Acceleration event on Wednesday.
As we reach the convergence point of exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology, among others, we likely approach a period of stock market hyper acceleration the likes of which we’ve only seen two other times in history.
The Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century… and the tech boom of the 1990s… both moments in history that also saw incredible fortunes made.
Jeff’s diving into all the details this Wednesday, August 20, at 8 p.m. ET. He’s even sharing two companies that he believes could jump 1,000% during the Hyper Acceleration.
You can go here to automatically add your name to the attendees’ list.
Last week was a powerhouse of a week for the future of nuclear energy.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced its initial selections of 11 advanced nuclear reactor projects with 10 companies in the private sector under the newly designed Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program.
“Advanced nuclear reactors” are a reference to the next generation of nuclear fission reactors, specifically small modular reactors (SMRs), which represent the fourth generation of nuclear fission reactor designs.
Sadly, there are no SMRs on the power grid in the U.S., despite the critical advantages this next generation of fission reactor technology provides.
It’s crazy that SMRs are not used in the U.S. today, given all the benefits…
The technology has been under development for decades. It has been available, and yet, U.S. nuclear regulations were the obstacle to deploying this clean energy capable of grid-scale, 24/7 operations.
Given that the availability of electricity is the single largest obstacle right now for building new artificial intelligence data centers, it’s clear that these past policy decisions were a horrible mistake.
After all, it’s not as if the AI industry made efforts to slow down. In the absence of clean, carbon-free electricity, it has been forced to lean heavily on carbon-based resources, primarily natural gas.
While this is still a nascent market, China and Russia have already made some progress.
Russia began construction on its Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant in 2019 and commissioned it in May 2020.
Akademick Lomonosov Floating Power Plant | Source: Rosatom
The above power plant is the only floating nuclear power plant in the world, and it’s comprised of two KLT-40S nuclear-fission reactors – capable of producing 35 megawatts of electricity each.
The plant provides vital energy to the western Chukotka region and Chersky in Yakutia. It has already produced more than 1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.
Other than Russia’s floating plant, in the Shandong province of China, the HTR-PM nuclear power plant was connected to the grid in December 2021.
China’s HTR-PM Nuclear Power Plant | Source: Tsinghua University
HTR-PM stands for high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor with a pebble bed module. These are typically referred to as pebble bed reactors, a unique design that uses 400,000 “pebbles,” which are small spheres that contain enriched nuclear fuel.
Pebble bed reactors are very safe and – by design – impossible to experience a meltdown. The HTR-PM is capable of producing 210 megawatts of electricity.
China has a second reactor, the ACP100, which is under construction in Changjiang and expected to be operational in 2026. And Russia has been manufacturing RITM-200 reactors for another floating power plant, as well as a land-based SMR.
The U.S. has oddly fallen behind, not because it doesn’t have the technology, but because of regulatory barriers that were designed to inhibit the production of carbon-free energy.
Fortunately, those politics have come to an end.
Signs of a sentiment shift on nuclear were already appearing in spring 2024 as it was clear that consumers and industry wanted the benefits of AI and accepted that a whole lot more energy would be required to support it…
But the sudden, big shift in policy stance began on May 23 this year, when President Trump signed four executive orders related to nuclear energy.
And specifically, Executive Order 14301, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy, is the catalyst for the announcement last week by the DOE.
Contained within the order was the directive to establish a pilot program outside of the National Laboratories for new reactor construction, testing, and ultimately commissioning.
The purpose is to look beyond just the public sector… and to rely on the private sector to move fast, innovate, and accelerate progress towards the national goal of adding 300 gigawatts of carbon-free electricity production by 2050.
And nuclear power, both fission and fusion, is the only realistic path forward to get there.
But we won’t have to wait 25 years to see progress. The goal is to enable the construction, testing, and successful operation of three pilot reactors by July 4, 2026 – let’s call it Independence Day for Carbon-Free Energy (IDCFE).
And this cannot go unstated: In less than three months since the executive order, the Department of Energy established the Reactor Pilot Program and selected its initial 11 projects, amongst 10 companies, to work towards the July 4, 2026, goal. How’s that for progress?
The named companies are:
These names are probably companies that most of us have never heard of before. I’ve been tracking them all for years, and – with the exception of Oklo – the rest are all private.
But I don’t expect that to last much longer.
With the stated clear regulatory support and alignment with national goals, capital is flooding into this sector… and many of these private companies will look to the public markets to raise capital for their SMR development, just as NuScale Power (SMR) and Oklo have done successfully.
Absent from the list above is NuScale, which makes sense, as it’s the only company that has received certification from the DOE for an SMR. NuScale has been working closely with the DOE and the Idaho National Laboratory on a prototype SMR, which is expected to be operational by 2029.
The one company that is missing that I expected to see is X-Energy, another very promising nuclear energy company that has already raised $1.1 billion to date and has Amazon as one of its backers.
Atomic Alchemy is a producer of radioisotopes, which are widely used in the healthcare, energy, and industrial sectors. It was acquired early this year by Oklo in order for Oklo to have a product line to start generating some revenues prior to its first SMR coming online. That means that Oklo has three out of the 11 projects selected by the DOE under this pilot program.
Oklo currently has $683 million in cash, what’s remaining from the proceeds of its IPO and a more recent secondary offering this June.
Other than Oklo, Radiant has raised $218 million to date, Terrestrial Energy $170 million to date, Aalo Atomics $133 million to date, Last Energy $68.5 million to date, and Natura Resources $78 million to date. The remaining names are much smaller.
I mention this because it will clearly take a lot of capital to get an SMR pilot reactor constructed and producing a self-sustaining reaction by next year.
Clearly, those companies that are farther along in their journey have an inherent advantage in being one of the three projects to achieve success by July 4, 2026.
It’s incredible to see this happening. In such a complex industry that requires heavy construction, complex integration, testing, and commissioning, we are witnessing a hyper-acceleration all happening within a single year.
And both the government and the private sector are motivated to make it a success. Why? Well, the whole point of the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program is to determine the very best companies and technologies that can fill the energy gap in short order to lead the world in artificial intelligence and carbon-free energy production.
And the winners will receive a fast track by the DOE for commercial licensing of their SMR technology.
To the winners go the spoils, and implementing a formal program with regulatory support and a path towards commercialization is exactly how a government can incentivize corporations and investors to accelerate their timelines.
Jeff
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
