The Ledger, every show
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks, across all 44 shows. Pick shows below, then mix any filter with any other.
shows 




every show 44 of 44
Nolan: Advanced nuclear reactor deployments will ramp significantly starting in 2030
“That, I think those, that timing is coming, you know, 20, 28 through 20 30. They're gonna first really start doing the, you know, single digit deployments, and then I think 2030 is where it really ramps.”
Nolan: Allied nuclear fleets will rely on Russia and China without US
“If the U.S. Does not provide enrichment To these countries, they will have to get it somewhere else as they build up their nuclear fleet, or they turn back on their nuclear fleet, and that'll be Russia, China.”
Nolan: Advanced Nuclear Startups Cite Russian Fuel as Primary Bottleneck
“And then all of them said the exact same thing. We want, you know, we're going to make nuclear affordable. We're going to make it scalable. We're going to take this from huge construction projects to factory built. And yet the one thing that's the hardest is n…”
Nolan: China's Energy Production Will Triple the US's This Year
“China was growing a long time, like. We were equal neck and neck. I think this year they now will be triple us on total energy production.”
Nolan: Data Centers Could Consume the Entire US Electrical Grid by 2030
“And you look at some of these curves and it looks like data centers can consume if they were allowed to the entire grid by 20, 30 at this growth rate.”
Nolan: SMRs will find their niche powering data centers behind the meter
“And so if gigawatt scale is for the grid and megawatt scale is for remote communities or, you know, government installations, then the middle scale, I think is going to find its niche behind the meter with data centers over the next five to 10 years.”
Nolan: Advanced reactors will surprise on deployment speed for AI demand
“We think that they're going to surprise everyone in their deployment speed and scale up, and, you know, just looking at the landscape of energy demand in the U.S. We haven't grown the grid for decades and yet now we have this huge surge of demand for data cent…”
Nolan: General Matter will displace adversarial nuclear imports by 2030
“Building enough capacity there to satisfy HALU through the next decade, and then enough LEU capacity to displace adversarial imports into the US. And so that's the scale of it. That's where we're doing it. Timeline is, you know, Before end of decade.”
Nolan: AI power demand by 2030 projected to match entire current US grid
“And I, you know, you look at some of these projections of AI power consumption over the next five years, and by 2030, it's predicted to basically consume all the, equivalent to all the power that's on the US grid today.”
Nolan: SpaceX can be cash-flow positive whenever it wants to be
“I think now the company, you know, has money and can be cashflow positive whenever they want to be.”
Nolan: Uranium enrichment is the only nuclear step the US lacks domestically
“The reason we're doing enrichment is because that's the one step the US doesn't do at any scale.”
Nolan: Nuclear Power Poses Far Lower Statistical Risk Than Other Baseload Sources
“And there have been high profile accidents with nuclear. You think of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima. But the actual risk associated with nuclear, despite those high profile incidents is still far, far lower than any other form of baseload energy.”
Nolan: Modern data centers can use closed-loop cooling to eliminate water issues
“And the modern data centers can do completely closed loop cooling. So the water issue is not an issue.”
Nolan: US was world leader in enrichment during 1980s before losing capability
“This was like, this step of enrichment was why we didn't have the more enriched fuel that advanced reactors needed. And you realize the U S had lost the ability despite being the number one in the world during the eighties by far. And it was something we were …”
Nolan: US has no commercial-scale domestic enrichers, relies on Europe and Russia
“If you look at enrichment today and what the U.S. Consumes, It's about 75% Europe, European producers and it's about 25% Russia. And so we can talk about the history of how we got here, but there's no commercial at scale U.S. Producer operating anywhere. There…”
Nolan: Only Russia currently produces commercial HALEU nuclear fuel
“If we need HALU, which is more enriched fuel for the factory built reactors, we need to get that fuel from Russia. Only Russia makes it today.”
Nolan: US produces under 0.1% of global enriched uranium today
“And so we're here now today with the U S doing less than .1% of global enrichment, effectively R and D capacity, not much commercial capacity, and just completely relying on foreign state backed entities. About 25% of enrichment in the U S comes from Russia an…”
Nolan: China doubled its grid since 2010 while US stayed flat
“And you look at China's grid in 2010,
U S and China were neck and neck.
Just that's where the two lines cross on the chart, 2010.
And since then China's doubled its grid while we stayed flat.
So now they have two X the energy production that we have, and it's …”
Nolan: Next-gen nuclear capacity will scale in the 2030s, not 2020s
“I think we see the big ramp next decade. This decade is about proving out the technologies, getting them licensed, giving them early deployments, and then it's going to be time to scale in the 20 thirties.”
Nolan: Vogtle Nuclear Plant Was Cheaper Than Contemporary Offshore Wind
“If you look at nuclear historically, like you look at Vogel, which You know, it was over budget, over schedule. People still highlight it was still cheaper than offshore wind that was built around the same time.”
Nolan: Early SpaceX employee handbook declared this is not a science experiment
“I remember getting there on day one and reading the employee handbook and on the top of page one was just a single line that was in bold. And it said this is not a science experiment.”
Nolan: Nuclear energy has the lowest death rate of any baseload power
“Nuclear energy for the past 50 years has been the cleanest form of energy, no carbon emissions, the safest form of baseload, which people find really surprising, but fewer human deaths per terawatt hour than any other baseload, And even any other energy source…”
Nolan: General Matter is building on the last closed US enrichment site
“And we shut down the last enrichment site in 2013, and that site was actually in western Kentucky on DOE land that our company is now building on.”
Nolan: China has tripled its electricity grid capacity since 2010
“If you look at the grid in 2010, we were completely tied neck and neck with China on grid total capacity. Something like 4000 or 5000 terawatt hours per year. Since then, in the 15 years since 2010, they've tripled. I think this year they're actually at three …”
Nolan: NRC committed to fast-tracking new fuel cycle licenses to 12 months
“And I think it was Thursday the NRC announced that a new fuel cycle license application went in And they're committing to put it on fast track and get it out in 12 months.”
Nolan: General Matter won a massive DOE contract for HALEU uranium enrichment
“Congress that appropriated 2.7 billion dollars for HALU enrichment. And we received one of those awards for nine hundred million. So nine hundred million dollar Milestone based contract, which will be earned over the next few years as we build that capability …”
Nolan: The US suffers from a total lack of uranium enrichment capacity
“And then came across this problem of Enrichment of uranium and the US's total lack of capacity in the space, which essentially forced me to go start General Matter.”
Nolan: The US Electrical Grid Has Stagnated Since the 1990s
“We grew our grid for a long time. And then starting around the nineties, essentially no growth until today”
Nolan: US Ban Will Eliminate 25% of Enriched Uranium Imports by 2028
“And today Russia's about 25% of U.S. Imports. And so 20, 25% immediately goes away. In 2028.”
Nolan: HALEU Fuel Accounts for Over Half of Advanced Reactors' Costs
“So some of the, some advanced reactors, the cost of the fuel, the halo fuel that goes into it enriched further to 19.75%, which requires more input material to refine it all the way there. As you filter through more and more and more material, that fuel can be…”
Nolan: Large-scale nuclear is not cheaper than coal, gas, or hydro
“The schedule to bring it online for the large gigawatt scale projects has been uncertain. The costs are often above what's projected. And when you look at the total package, it's not cheaper than coal. It's not cheaper than natural gas. It's not cheaper than h…”
Nolan: Peter Thiel joined General Matter's board of directors
“Ultimately joining our board as one of very few boards that he's on was yeah, really appreciate that.”
US uranium enrichment market share dropped from 86% to under 0.1%
“And so we went from a place of 86% global market share down to less than .1% today by U.S. Companies or U.S. Entities.”
Nolan: DOE lab testing pathway will accelerate Gen-IV reactor deployment
“I think that's going to really accelerate the reactor development and deployment.”
Nolan: Turbines will likely be the bottleneck for expanding natural gas power
“Turbines will be the bottleneck most likely.”
Nolan: New Rules Will Enable NRC to Factor in Nuclear Benefits
“I think we're going to see these regulations actually change the way those people in the NRC are able to operate. Setting hard deadlines on things, giving them the freedom to factor in benefits of nuclear.”
Nolan: Small Advanced Reactors Require Enrichment up to 19.75% U-235
“Most reactors, the big ones, people think about gigawatt scale reactors. They need that you, the uranium enriched to about three to five percent U two 35. And then the small ones, 19.75% is where everyone's ending up”
Nolan: A single nuclear pellet equals over 100 barrels of oil
“One of those pellets is equivalent to over a hundred barrels of oil or over a ton of coal.”
Nolan: US Accounted for Over 80% of Global Uranium Enrichment in 1980s
“So the US in the eighties was actually more than 80% of global enrichment.”
Nolan: NASA aims to achieve nuclear-driven space propulsion by 2028
“I think they're aiming for space ion nuclear-driven space propulsion by twenty-twenty-eight. And then they're talking about reactors on, on the moon's surface to, you know, create heat and power things.”
Nolan: US low-enriched uranium market for existing grid reactors is $2B-$2.5B
“And then phase two is go into LEU production, low enriched uranium for the 94 reactors on the grid today and supply them with the fuel that they need, which today in the U S is a two, two and a half billion dollar market.”
Nolan: Global uranium ore reserves offer hundreds of years of supply
“We've got, yeah, certainly hundreds of years of supply in the ground.
U S has supply.
We have active mining in the U S Canada has even more supply, higher grade ores enough to supply us for a very long time.
Same as Australia.
And then Kazakhstan's a huge depo…”
Nolan: US waiver process for Russian uranium imports expires January 1, 2028
“Well, in, in twenty-twenty-four, there was a Russian uranium imports ban passed by Congress, and so there's a waiver process that's ongoing right now where the Secretary of Energy can waive the ban. If a utility needs it and there's not another source, which h…”
Nolan: Most advanced reactors will use 19.75% enriched HALEU fuel
“Most of the advanced reactors that you hear about are going to be using 19.75 enriched fuel.”
Paducah was the last site of US commercial-scale uranium enrichment
“Paducah is actually the last place the U.S. Did commercial scale enrichment. It's where we did enrichment that fueled all the U.S. Reactors, and that facility was shut down in 2013”
Nolan: U.S.-mined uranium is often shipped abroad for conversion and back
“Today For us product to be mined, you know, it's shipped all the way out of the country to be converted in, in a lot of cases, and then shipped all the way back.”