🌍 Nuclear is the future #14

Why nuclear should be part of a clean energy future and startups making it happen

Hi there 🤗

Welcome to another edition of the ‘tings newsletter 🌍

This time we are looking at the environmental impact of generating energy, why nuclear is the future, and three startups trying to make that happen in different ways.

This was quite a difficult edition to write and resulted in one that is little a bit longer than usual, but I feel that the topic deserved a few extra lines of text to try and properly explain it 😇

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📈 Global CO2 emissions reached their highest level in 2021

The problem with renewable sources of energy like wind or solar is that you can’t just turn up the amount of wind or sun during a given period to ensure adequate energy production. Fossil-based energy sources are much easier and quicker to scale up to meet energy demands – you just have to burn more coal or gas to generate more energy.

This nature of fossil vs. renewable sources is what’s spurring on a massive spike in global emissions. In 2021 we saw the biggest ever jump in global emissions from energy combustion and industrial processes. Eliminating all the progress we made in 2020 and rebounding to the highest level in history. One of the biggest factors for this change, besides economies restarting post-pandemic, was a large shift from natural gas to coal due to rising gas prices (natural gas is up 330% from its 2020 low).

Coal accounted for over 40% of the overall growth in global CO2 emissions in 2021.

This price hike is likely to continue due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia is the second largest natural gas producer in the world. This conflict is not only destroying the future of Ukrainians and many Russians that have no interest in this war, but it is also jeopardising the future of everyone living on planet earth 🌍

One other energy generation method that can increase its output far easier than renewable sources is nuclear. In terms of providing a clean base load of energy that does not depend on factors outside of our control, nuclear really is the way to go. Looking at the 10 largest countries in Europe in terms of GDP there is a clear correlation between the % of nuclear energy supply and the carbon intensity of the country’s energy production. Generally, the higher the percentage of energy generated from nuclear the lower the country’s emission of CO2e per kWh of electricity produced. The countries that have a sizeable nuclear capacity will also be less affected by changing natural gas prices and will not have to increase their use of coal fired power plants to satisfy energy demands.

Nuclear has a bad reputation around the world and is seen as something dangerous. This is not the right energy source that should be getting our hate. Our common enemy is fossil-derived energy! If we look at the number of deaths, caused by accidents and pollution, per terawatt-hour of energy produced, nuclear is one of the safest forms of energy generation there is.

Nuclear waste gets stored securely in concrete bunkers well below the biosphere to not affect our liveable areas and withstand natural disasters, while the waste from oil, gas, and coal gets released into our atmosphere where it causes pollution and kills thousands of people and animals per year. Nuclear energy also requires 1/5th of the land required by wind power and just 6% of the land area of solar installations to produce the same amount of energy, even when accounting for the land use of the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

If we want to, and we really should, move towards a clean energy future, today up to 73% of global emissions can somehow be attributed to energy, nuclear will need to be a big part of our future to mitigate some of the issues with renewables.

Nuclear is already a very safe method of energy production, and should be more widely adopted, but there are also plenty of startups hard at work trying to make the future of nuclear energy even safer and more efficient.

☢️ Transmutex - Generating energy from radioactive waste

Transmutex is a Swiss startup who has raised over €7.5 million to utilise existing waste products and particle accelerators to generate clean and safe energy. The two waste products that Transmutex utilise are long-lived radioactive waste and thorium, a mildly radioactive metal that is a by-product of rare earth mining and can be found in the ash of coal power plants. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors, Transmutex does not rely on a self-sustaining chain reaction but is engineered to operate at a subcritical level to avoid a runaway thermal reaction.

They have developed a process, based on research from CERN, using a proton accelerator to create an extremely high-intensity neutron source to allow for the transmutation, the conversion of one chemical element or an isotope into another chemical element, of thorium into uranium U-233. This produces extraordinary amounts of energy that allows existing radioactive waste to be burned together with the thorium. This reaction only results in minor amounts of radioactive waste and stops once the particle accelerator is turned off. The added benefit of their technology is that the waste that does remain has a lifespan 1000x shorter than that of other radioactive waste, down to 300 years from 300,000 years.

Their goal is to deliver a pilot plant within this decade and by using waste products Transmutex claim it will be cost competitive.

🚢 Seaborg Technologies - Small and mobile nuclear reactors

Danish startup Seaborg Technologies have raised over €23 million to date to develop a next-generation ‘portable’ nuclear reactor. They are developing compact molten salt reactors or CSMR for short that will be deployed on barges, allowing the energy generated to be deployed anywhere.

Unlike in traditional settings where the fuel rods are cooled with high pressure water, Seaborg mixes the fuel with a molten fluoride salt that acts as the coolant. This allows the fuel to be much safer because if the fuel salt mixture ever comes into contact with the atmosphere it would cool down and turn into a solid rock. The fuel mixture should last for up to 12 years after which their fuel source, a short-lived one, can be separated from the salt and handled the same way as radioactive medical waste. The salt can then be reused for the next cycle.

Their barges will be able to deliver up to 800 MW, clean water from desalination, and heating. The reactors can also be used for pink hydrogen (pink is the classification given to carbon-neutral hydrogen made using nuclear power), synthetic fuels, and fertilisers. The use of the salt mixture should also reduce costs and complexity compared to conventional reactors according to Seaborg. Their goal is to deliver a commercial prototype by 2024.

Image: Seaborg CSMR Barge, Source: Seaborg Technologies

🌞 Marvel Fusion - Clean fusion energy with lasers

German Marvel Fusion have raised €60M since their founding in 2019 to make nuclear fusion energy possible by using lasers. Unlike existing nuclear reactors that make use of fission, the splitting of atoms into smaller ones, Marvel Fusion like their name suggests, make use of fusion, the joining of two or more lighter atoms into a larger one (how our stars generate energy). Nuclear fusion does not result in any radioactive waste like its fission counterpart. Fusion is the holy grail of energy production as one gram of fuel could generate as much energy as 11 tonnes of coal. The problem with fusion is that it is very difficult to create a reaction that generates more energy than is required to power it.

There are numerous startups and a massive international effort in France called ITER that are trying to crack fusion using a process called magnetic confinement. In essence, they create a vacuum inside a hollow donut and hold the fusion material (isotopes of hydrogen) in place with powerful magnetic fields to generate plasma that is 10x hotter than the centre of the sun (for a better and more in-depth explanation check out this video). Marvel Fusion take a different approach called inertial confinement where the fuel source is compressed so intensely that it reaches the necessary conditions for fusion. They do this using very powerful lasers to intensely pulse small fuel pellets. Supplementary systems are then used to transform this energy into electricity

So far Marvel only have computer models and the money they raised so far is not even close to what will be required to create a working prototype, that will require billions. Like with the other fusion projects this technology is a long-shot, but if successful could solve all our energy problems.

⏰ We shouldn’t wait for fusion though!

Yes, fusion has the potential to create endless clean energy with no waste or emissions but we cannot wait that long. Current, modern nuclear reactors are pretty much as safe as other renewable sources, provide a base-line of energy that does not rely on external factors, and are significantly cleaner than fossil-based alternatives.

I hope you found this edition, looking at our energy crisis and why nuclear should be a part of our clean energy future, interesting 🤗

As always, if you liked or didn’t like this edition let me know by liking, commenting, or replying to the email.

Until next time, much love,

Pascal 💚