Luckey-Backed Nuclear Startup Aims to Build First US SMR

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00:00Isaiah, good to have you on the program. Congratulations on the raise. When we talk

00:03about small modular reactors, you're not alone. Nanonuclear, Oclo, Nuscale, just a handful of the

00:09companies working on this technology. What makes Valor's different?

00:16Yeah, Tim, it's a huge pleasure to be on with you today, and it's a really exciting day for

00:19Valor. It's a great question. There are a lot of people tackling this very, very difficult problem

00:24of how do we make all of the energy needs that America has in the future. You know, the thing

00:28that sets Valor apart is two things. One is that we're building very quickly. You know, when we

00:33started this company, we realized that there was a gap in the physical hardware. We wanted to

00:38actually build reactors and test them out very rapidly. I started this company about two years

00:42ago, and earlier this year, we unveiled our fully complete thermal prototype of our reactor. That's

00:48just incredible speed. We haven't seen that kind of speed in nuclear in a long time. The other thing

00:52that sets us apart is that we want to build these to be manufacturable. We're sort of moving away from

00:56this era of nuclear that's driven by construction and more into mass manufacturing. We want to pump

01:01these things out like they're a car, like they're a bus, and that's what's going to drive the cost

01:05down and also add a lot to safety as well. Before you pump these things out, though, you've got to

01:10build one single example of one that actually works. And here in the United States, there is still

01:16no example of a small modular reactor that is up and running, that is online. Taking your company out of

01:23the mix, just when do you think there will be an example of that in the U.S.?

01:28That's exactly right. We don't have any small modular reactors running in the U.S. today.

01:33And in fact, even though there have been many nuclear startups who have sort of attempted this,

01:38there's never been a nuclear startup which has yet split the atom. So I think the next 12 months

01:42are going to be extremely exciting. In May of this year, the president signed an executive order

01:48ordering three American nuclear companies to turn on SMRs by July 4th of next year.

01:53Our company was one of those companies selected. So I think I can confidently say before July 4th,

01:58there will be at least one, we hope three, SMRs running in the United States. And we definitely

02:03think that Valor will have one of those. How much do they cost? How much will it cost? What's the

02:07ultimate goal? So the initial goal is to beat natural gas. I think nuclear absolutely has to compete

02:14with natural gas on price, on timeline, and all of these things that developers care about.

02:19So that's the initial goal. And that gas plant's going somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 bucks a

02:24kilowatt. So we want to be at least with parity. Now, we're also cleaner. So it's not just that we're

02:28the same price, it's that we're cleaner as well. But the thing that's interesting about nuclear is that

02:33it's actually fairly new. And there's a lot to go down the tech tree. There's a lot of technological

02:38innovation that can happen in the future. So we expect that price to continue dropping. I think about

02:43SpaceX when we talk about this, where rockets used to cost $50,000 a kilogram into orbit, and

02:48SpaceX pushed them down to 2,000. I think we're going to look at that level of drop. There's going

02:53to be a massive, massive drop in the price as Valor gets really good at making these reactors and makes

02:58many of them. You announced earlier this year that you're suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

03:03the NRC. Why are you doing that? Yeah, you know, I think the thing that is really important in

03:10nuclear today is allowing innovation to happen, right? If you think about the role of a regulator,

03:15they're trying to figure out how to make sure that we have safety and security across thousands of

03:20reactors deployed all over the place. But what was missing in American nuclear was the innovation

03:25layer. We need to be able to turn on test units and make sure that they work well. And that's sort

03:29of the layer that's missing. So our lawsuit really addresses a gap in how the code of federal

03:34regulations has been written versus how the law is written. And so, you know, we're excited about that.

03:39We're also very excited about the Department of Energy that these executive orders signed earlier

03:43this year have also opened up incredible pathways to be able to move quickly, turn our reactors on,

03:48safely test them before we go and scale. You know, Palmer, we're showing an image there of different

03:54investors in the company, Palmer Luckey of Anderil. Among those investors, certainly thinking about the

04:01defense space and his involvement there. What are the applications of your technology when it comes

04:06to defense for the United States? That's exactly right. You know, American military bases all around

04:13the world are generally dependent on their local grid for power. This has become a massive

04:18vulnerability as grids have become vulnerable to cyber attack, you know, by our competitors.

04:24And so this is a way for us to actually secure American military bases abroad. We want to see these

04:29reactors deployed on bases. A couple of months ago, the Janus program was announced under the U.S.

04:34Army to do exactly this, to actually put power on military bases that's fully within American

04:39control. And we think these reactors are perfect for that. This is a nice small form factor that's

04:43very easy to construct and is powerful enough to power a base if you put a couple of them

04:48together. So this is a really exciting opportunity and we're willing to help our country in that way.

04:53We've seen American military bases come under attack in recent years in different parts of the

04:57world. How would you guarantee the safety of this technology if it were to come under attack and

05:03not lead to some sort of meltdown? Yeah, you know, this is where this particular technology shines.

05:10Our reactor is built around a very safe form of nuclear fuel called Triso fuel. Triso fuel is very

05:16small beads of uranium encased in very hard ceramic layers. And it turns out that these ceramic layers

05:21are extremely impervious to many different types of attacks. So if you look at the spectrum of how you

05:27build energy around the world, we believe this is actually the safest form of energy generation in the

05:31world. So we're really excited to put it out, not on the edge, not only on the edge, but also for data centers,

05:37heavy industrial power and eventually synthetic hydrocarbon production.

05:41Isaiah, before we let you go, is your company going to be the first U.S. company to successfully deploy and bring

05:48online a small modular reactor?

05:51You know, it's a hot race and there are a lot of awesome people working on the problem. But where I sit today, I do believe that

05:57Valor Atomics will be the first. That is absolutely our goal.

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