Chris Levesque
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Well, it certainly makes them safer and more economic as well.
Thanks for having me, Joe.
And thanks to Governor Cox, really, for your leadership with Operation Gigawatt.
And of course, we already heard that the Trump administration is providing very strong support for nuclear and advanced nuclear energy, which is the form that Natrium takes.
You know, I've spent my whole career in nuclear energy beginning in the Navy.
And this is an industry that the U.S.
created decades ago.
It provides 20 percent of our electricity.
But the fact is the U.S.
had fallen behind in the last few years.
China and Russia have many more new builds than us.
And with leadership from folks like Governor Cox, we're now prioritizing advanced nuclear energy.
And it is very important for us to move to new technologies like the Natrium reactor because they will be cheaper and safer than today's plants.
Today's plants are quite safe.
But if we look at a massive upscale, it's really important for us to move to the new technologies.
China and Russia certainly are.
The natrium reactor is still a fission reactor.
We break uranium atoms to release a lot of heat and boil water to make steam and drive turbines to make electricity the old-fashioned way.
But by cooling the reactor with liquid sodium, it allows us to have a low-pressure plant, which is going to be safer.
It's going to require much less steel and concrete.