Brett Kugelmass
Founder & CEO, Last Energy. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutivehostengineerLinkedIn ↗lastenergy.com ↗
Brett Kugelmass is the founder and CEO of Last Energy, a company developing micro-modular nuclear power plants. Previously, he founded the autonomous drone startup Airphrame and hosts the Titans of Nuclear podcast.
1shows
1appearances
14statements
8resolved
5supported
2contradicted
63%fully supported
Everything Brett Kugelmass said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kugelmass: Global SMR sector is entirely PR, with zero physical construction
“Well, there's virtually nothing actually being built globally anywhere for anything other than the traditional reactors. There's a lot of press announcements. Our company is building stuff, but we can get to that later. And then everything else is very theoret…”
Kugelmass: Poor construction methods and subsidies crippled global nuclear deployment
“The only reason that we don't have 10 times as much nuclear As we do today, both installed, but also being built, is simply because the way that we have decided to build them is terrible. Just overly complex construction, like, awful financial incentives, usua…”
Kugelmass: NuScale's NRC certificate is for a deprecated design they discarded
“The things that they got the certificate for are deprecated designs. So no, they don't have like, yeah, like everything that you're seeing is for something they submitted years and years and years ago, and they've totally thrown in the trash at this point also…”
Kugelmass: Any NRC administrative assistant can trigger a two-year project shutdown
“Like, any single person, you could be an administrative assistant at the NRC, at any point can raise a safety flag on any project and shut that project down for two years. This could be someone with no technical training whatsoever. If they come across a piece…”
Kugelmass: Replicating 1968 nuclear blueprints would cut global energy costs fivefold
“If you, if we just like went into those facilities, like looked at the blueprints and the Built them exactly how they were built. We would decarbonize the entire planet, and every human being would have energy that's, like, five times cheaper than they're payi…”
Kugelmass: Advanced chemistry nuclear reactors will not deploy until mid-2030s
“The ones that are most realistic, even by their own admission, by the way, to be built in the next five to 10 years, are the ones that use the traditional proven reactor technology and don't introduce some sort of physics chemistry or material science innovati…”
Kugelmass: No entity has completed NRC licensing for under $1 billion
“In order to get a license, you have to submit a license application. It is at minimum, in the U.S., it's at minimum four years, ah, worth of work. No one has done it for less than one billion dollars. No one has spent less than one billion dollars in licensing…”
NRC added 1,200 pages of new regulations despite congressional streamlining mandate
“And they took all of the old regulations, the regulations that drive up the costs to ten billion, or to one billion dollars, make it take 10 years, and then they added 1200 pages of new regulations.”
Kugelmass: Most modern small modular reactors are neither small nor truly modular
“Most of them that are thought of as the SMRs in this generation are neither small, some of them are bigger than the original reactors, and they're not modular. Like, they are using traditional construction techniques that maybe have, like, a little bitty bit o…”
Kugelmass predicts Poland will lead the world in next-generation nuclear deployment
“I think the most activity that we've seen anywhere, like, once again, including with our own company, is in Poland. You know, there's, like, a confluence of circumstances there between, you know, sustained political and social support. Their energy security is…”
Last Energy has started development on nearly 20 nuclear deals in Poland
“I mean, we've announced almost 20 deals out there now that we've signed and are starting development activities on.”
Kugelmass: US nuclear capital costs rose tenfold from 1968 to 1978
“What you saw from 1968 to 1978 was a tenfold increase in price for the exact same product delivered because that was a tenfold increase in the profit that the companies were allowed to make.”
Kugelmass: Small modular reactor designs have crept up to 700 megawatts
“The industry started with small being like 200 or 300 megawatts, which is only slightly smaller than the original fleet of reactors that we built out, which was 506 hundred megawatts. And now those very models have climbed up to 405 107 hundred megawatts, and …”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Brett's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 CATALYSTLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Last Energy | 1 | 14 | 63% 5/8 | full record on Catalyst → |