Investing in a world powered by nuclear fission

Experts predict that solar and wind can meet ~70% of the world’s energy demands, but what energy sources will take up which shares of the remaining pie? The remaining must be covered by some combination of other low-carbon sources like hydro, biomass, geothermal, gas/oil with carbon sequestration, and, of course, nuclear.

High-temperature gas reactors (HTGRs): In HTGRs, gasses (typically helium) act as the coolant that is fed directly into the turbine to produce energy. Helium is an inert gas, so it generally won’t chemically react with any material, and exposing helium to neutron radiation won’t make it radioactive. Helium can therefore be heated to higher temperat... See more

It’s not just the current political climate leading to a renewed interest in nuclear power. The story of nuclear fission is one of decreasing physical size, increasing safety, and increasing efficiency.

Fission occurs when a neutron comes in contact with a larger nucleus (say, Uranium-235). After absorbing the neutron, U-235 turns into the violently unstable U-236 and immediately splits into two smaller nuclei, releasing a tremendous amount of energy. Additional neutrons are also released from the fission reaction, subsequently striking other U-23... See more

The U.S. government is pushing hard to fund the development of fourth-generation SMRs and microreactors. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) has allocated billions of dollars to startups, including $1.2 billion to X-Energy and $2 billion to TerraPower. Similarly, the Pentagon recently selected BWXT to deve... See more

Additionally, the heat engines that fission power plants use to convert fission energy into electricity (i.e., heat produces steam which turns a turbine) are incredibly inefficient. Another challenge for nuclear fission is optics and government backing. Demand for nuclear power has been heavily impacted by nuclear accidents. Today, nuclear power ha... See more

One of the biggest challenges for nuclear fission is economic: New plants take years to build and cost billions of dollars. A number of factors contribute to nuclear fission’s economic challenges, which have only increased over the past few decades. In addition to the obvious capital costs, onerous regulations stretch out the development times for ... See more

Within the broad umbrella of SMRs and microreactors, though, there are a number of additional innovations.

The heat released by fission in nuclear reactors must be captured and transferred for use in electricity generation. To this end, reactors use coolants (e.g., water) that remove heat from the core where the fuel is processed and carry it to electrical generators. Coolants also serve to maintain manageable pressures within the core.

Sodium fast reactors (SFR): In SFRs, liquid sodium acts as the coolant instead of water. Liquid sodium, compared to water, can handle higher temperatures at lower pressures, which improves the efficiency and safety of the reactor.