The Atomic Show

New York has a long and storied nuclear energy history. It is the home of the oldest operating commercial reactor, Nine Mile Point plus three other units that collectively produce more than 20% of its electricity. Those four units operate with an average capacity factor that is even higher than the already high U.S. nuclear fleet average.

New York residents like those nuclear plants enough that they supported their representatives when they implemented one of the nation’s first subsidy programs designed to ensure that nuclear plants did not get shutdown as a result of temporary economic conditions. The Zero Emission Credit (ZEC) has successfully provided cost effective support for New York’s upstate nuclear plants for more than a decade.

But it is also a state that abandoned a completed nuclear plant without ever operating it (Shoreham) and politically forced the closure of a two unit nuclear plant that cleanly and safely provided about a quarter of the electricity used in New York City.

Due to that history, many people in the pronuclear world were surprised when Governor Kathy Hochul announced a strong pronuclear position accompanied by real action to enable the expanded use of nuclear technology.

Doreen Harris, the President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) visited the Atomic Show to discuss New York’s pivot toward full blown support of new nuclear power. She cited many of the often-discussed benefits of welcoming nuclear development, including enabling large quantities of clean electricity, improving electricity grid performance and reliability, developing good paying career level jobs, supporting local communities and providing a steady stream of tax revenues for many different levels of government.

We talked about the specific steps being undertaken to prepare for new nuclear development. Some of the steps discussed include forming committees – with representatives from multiple agencies and stakeholders – and producing reports, but we also talked about more concrete efforts that will contribute to constructive progress.

A major component of the effort is to develop partnership and cooperative relations with other entities that have shared interests. Examples include the recently announced partnership with the Canadian providence of Ontario and New York’s position as a co-chair of the Advanced Nuclear First Mover Initiative under the leadership of the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO).

I’m sure you will enjoy the show. You might find certain segments to be especially valuable.

Apollo Atomics is developing a line of integral pressurized water reactors that builds on 70 years worth of operational experience with materials, chemistry, fuels, supply chains and training. The company is implementing a key improvement that they believe will significantly reduce cost, space and weight. They are planning to replace conventional shell and tube steam generators with printed circuit heat steam generators with far greater heat transfer surface area per unit volume.

According to the company’s design calculations and early physical modeling, their technology can shrink the size of a steam generator by a factor of 20 while also giving them the ability to produce superheated steam. Printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs) are not unknown or untested; they have made inroads into markets like floating LNG production platforms, but adoption has so far been limited.

Assil Halimi, the CEO and Co-Founder of Apollo Atomics, visited the Atomic Show to describe his company and its innovative spin on the well established light water reactor. We talked about the advantages of far smaller steam generators that can transfer the same amount of heat and the transformation of the enormous components from virtually hand made works of art to something that can be mass manufactured in a factory.

We talked about several technologies, including the mPower and NuScale Power Module, that appear to be very similar but have not achieved market traction. Assil described how Apollo’s Compact Steam Generator improves the situation.

Assil also provided an overview of Apollo’s strategy of integrating powerful AI tools from the very beginning of design and manufacturing.

The company has a long way to go and a great deal of catching up to do, but they are moving fast and taking advantage of technologies that were not available to the current leaders in the light water reactor industry.

Warning: This show is a lot more technical than most Atomic Shows. The topic warrants the details.

Disclosure: Nucleation Capital is an investor in Apollo Atomics.

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is in one of its busiest periods since the 1950s-late 1960s when it hosted the construction of 52 test, special purpose and demonstration nuclear reactors. Back when it was called the National Reactor Testing Station (1948-1974) it played a major role in today’s operating fleet of nuclear reactors, both commercial and naval.

On June 4, 2026, for the first time in 50 years, a new reactor was constructed and tested at INL (Antares Mark 0). Then a second one started up on June 30 (Deployable Unity), and a third one on July 4 (Aalo-X). Within days to weeks, a fourth reactor will be started and not only operated at zero power criticality, but also brought to full power and operated through a series of stress tests culminating in a continuous full power run lasting at least 150 hours (Radiant Kaleidos).

John Wagner, INL’s current Director, is one of the overseers of the action. On this episode of the Atomic Show, John shares pride, pleasure and passion for his organization and the contribution that it’s making towards a new nuclear era. We talked about the ways that INL’s staff assisted the private companies that built the machines that started up and how the staff provided assistance to reactor projects located in Utah (Valar) and Texas (Oklo) that have started up during the busy summer of 2026.

John also made it abundantly clear that the private companies bore the costs of designing, building and operating their equipment. The laboratory staff, as well as the Department of Energy staff, played supportive roles as needed. They helped to remove artificial barriers in the way of timely mission accomplishment.

INL is not just a nuclear energy laboratory. It also hosts major programs in micro-grids, grid integration, conventional renewable energy, geothermal energy and cyber security. John explains their importance to the modern electrical grid and the roles that they will play in the near future.

We talked about John’s current research interests, including improvements in the way that we understand and regulate the health effects of low level radiation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s dawning recognition that treating a double ended guillotine break in large light water reactor piping as a design basis accident is conservative in the extreme.

You will enjoy this show. John is an engaging speaker in an influential position. He is one of the true leaders in the creation of a new nuclear era.

Radiant Nuclear is a dynamic company that has designed, built and transported a complete micro reactor that fits onto the back of a truck. That reactor, named the Kaleidos, will soon be fueled, started and tested through five phases that will include 150 hours at full power without operator assistance. In order to run the tests right up to the full design basis conditions, the tests will be conducted in the National Reactor Innovation Center’s DOME facility.

The reactor shipment began on August 13, 2026.

Tori Shivanandan, Radiant’s President and Chief Operating Officer, visited the Atomic Show to tell us more about Radiant, Kaleidos, Doug Bernaur’s master plan for Radiant “Atoms for Prosperity”, R-50 – Radiant’s fifty reactor/year factory – and the career path that brought her to her key leadership role at an innovative reactor manufacturing company.

Tori talked about growing up in rural Pennsylvania, her stint as the captain of the Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team, the family-run industrial parts supplier that lured her to Southern California, the fork in the road between medical school and Radiant and her subsequent path to her current role.

We discussed the value of transportable micro-reactors, the economics of behind the meter power generation, Radiant’s design for autonomous operation, the benefits of locating in Southern California’s defense and aerospace heartland, the minor obstacle of California’s prohibition against building and operating new nuclear reactors, and about Radiant’s progress in establishing the R-50 factory and its reactor fueling facility in Oak Ridge, TN.

Tori described the important contributions being made by Radiant’s inspired and hard working employees and the way that mission drives them forward. She also emphasized the important role being played by adequate capital and several successful fund raising cycles.

We talked about Kaleidos internal shielding and the way it can enable a reactor that has been operated for its full life cycle at 100% power to be road transportable in just 30 days. We discussed the system’s ability to go from site delivery to supplying loads within 48 hours and the utility that capability provides for disaster recovery as well as forward operating base power supply.

We briefly covered Radiant’s selection as an initial base power supply provider for the Space Force, with its first unit to be delivered to the Buckley, CO Space Force base in 2028.

Radiant has undertaken a true “shoot for the stars” mission of building a distributed U.S. electrical grid one megawatt at a time. It plans to be rolling one Kaleidos reactor per week out of its first factory, and to rapidly add additional factories as that one is refined and orders add up.

Disclosure: Nucleation Capital, the sponsor of the Atomic Show and Atomic Insights, is an equity investor in Radiant Industries, Inc.

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is best known for its nuclear engineering and pioneering reactor testing programs. Somewhat lesser known is the Lab’s cutting edge research in all other energy sources including wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass and batteries.

The Energy and Environment, Science & Technology (EES&T) Directorate, one of five directorates at the Lab, focuses its research on understanding available energy sources and melding them into coherent and maximally effective systems. The Directorate’s R&D programs seek to take advantage of the special characteristics each energy source adds to the mix.

Dr. Shannon Bragg-Sitton is INL’s Associate Laboratory Director in charge of the EES&T. She is a nuclear engineer by education and experience who initially focused on what she refers to as “nano-reactors.” Those devices, the smallest of which are no bigger than a kitchen trash can, are designed to serve space applications, either as planetary – or Lunar – power supplies or as propulsion sources.

During our conversation, Shannon described her career trajectory from being a student to working at NASA to being a professor at Texas A&M focused on space nuclear power. She described moving to the Idaho National Laboratory as a way to broaden her technical and leadership scope. She mentioned how that move was partially motivated by the challenge of being a tenure track professor while also having three “very young” children.

At INL, she branched out from her special interest in very small reactors and eventually found herself in charge of a division that developed concepts for micro grids that incorporate a wide variety of power sources in ways that maximized effectiveness and economy while still ensuring continuing reliability. She learned to appreciate the value and contributions from non nuclear power sources while never losing her passion for nuclear energy and its capabilities.

Her career advice boils down to a set of recommendations for young professionals:

Maintain a questioning attitude,

Be open to new opportunities,

Be willing to get outside of their comfort zone

Be able to adapt in the face of changing circumstances.

Aside: Shannon has a special interest in the development of young professionals in the nuclear industry. When we first met, she was part of a group of seven passionate professionals who were founding a group they called NA-YGN – North American Young Generation in Nuclear. At the time, the industry organizations were dominated by people in the north of 45 category. NA-YGN was aimed at people who were 35 or younger, but they made an exception for a 40+ blogger who shared their passion. End Aside.

We talked about the utility of energy storage, both in the form of electrical energy stored in a chemical battery and thermal energy stored in a system like the molten salt tanks associated with TerraPower’s Natrium power plant. We talked a bit about the rapid successes being achieved in micro reactors as part of the Reactor Pilot Program and we also talked about the way that a number of exiting developments at INL are helping to contribute to a growing economy in Idaho Falls.

As a long-time resident of Idaho Falls, Shannon expressed mixed emotions about the increased traffic and higher costs of living associated with new activities at INL, but came down on the side of being happy about the economic development. She also spoke passionately about Idaho as a wonderful place to live and to raise a family, especially if you like activities like hiking and camping.

You’ll enjoy the show.