Speaker unverified: prediction

Transcript context

…small. And so a big part of your focus is providing power in places where you really need that reliability. You're talking about replacing diesel generators, is that kind of the design center for you? Yeah. And anywhere where you're going to enable a capability, a mission capability, that wouldn't really be possible otherwise. So there's actually some really interesting space applications, potentially underwater applications as you move to… So you move away from what they call exquisite systems to attributable systems. This is where a really small reactor can come in very handy for the submarines are obviously multi-megawatt-powered systems, but these could be kilowatt-powered, smaller systems underwater. But yes, anywhere where you're off grid where today you're relying on what they call the fuel supply chain of bringing in fuel via helicopter or barge repeatedly and that being a vulnerability, this is a great option. So you're the Starlink of electricity, bringing it to places where— We're actually perfectly paired. And I wish we could offer a consumer product, that's not on our roadmap right now, but maybe one day, like backpack-sized nuclear reactor. I presume it kind of can't be on your roadmap, but why not? Is selling to the government is much easier than selling to something— So many reasons. I think that you always want to try to get your beachhead where it's the easiest to achieve. And so we believe, I believe, that premium power is where you need to go with nuclear. And there there's two places for that. One is what we're doing with Antares, which is to go to the military, help them with mission-critical needs where they're not cost-sensitive, where they already pay more for power, and go there and support them with this next gen better version of resilient power. Or you go and you sell, what we're seeing now I think, which is really interesting with the hyperscalers is they have carbon commitments. They want clean firm, they want 24/7 power. They're actually willing to pay above market rates for that and they will pay above market rates. So this premium power thing is a really interesting dynamic of where nuclear is kind of well positioned. What are the underwater applications? Well, it's really just, think mini-submarines. Oh, okay. Just really small systems. What drones are to maybe larger missiles. That's kind of the equivalent. It's not super far along just yet. Got it. Okay. What does the path look like between now and producing power for the military? I guess, first in a pilot environment and then kind of at scale outside of a pilot environment. g just yet. Got it. Okay. What does the path look like between now and producing power for the military? I guess, first in a pilot environment and then kind of at scale outside of a pilot environment. Yeah. Well, it's always what are the next milestones that you can do to prove your technical ability and raise more capital to keep going with your company. I think the biggest risk often to hardware companies is you don't get far enough along technically to merit additional investment. So we're thinking a lot about our milestones for reactor development. And so, next year a criticality test is kind of the first milestone. By the end of 2027, we want to have our first demonstration unit demonstrated. And what's really exciting is there's just so much good policy happening right now from the DOE and elsewhere that is supporting reactor tests and pilot programs. And so there's just so much happening where they're opening up federal land, they're removing… Starting to remove some of those NEPA type regulations that really just hold everything up. So there is a clearer path now than there really ever has been for reactor builds. Oh, we'll get to the regulatory side. I have a lot of questions, but what is your criticality test in 2026? What does that mean? Yeah, it means that you're testing that you can actually start your reaction. So you've figured out the right amount of moderator to fuel and you start it going critical. You don't have it continue on for a while. You don't typically have a power convergence system that's actually taking the raw energy and turning it into electricity. So it's just one of those initial tests. Can you start to put all your pieces together? And fusion guys are all focused on this, producing more power than you put in. I know that's different. That's a fusion thing, but yeah, when do you actually produce power? Yeah, producing power will be your first reactor test. It's like can you do the whole shebang? You can get this thing up and running. It's producing power, and that's what we're aiming to do by the end of 2027. Wow, that's pretty soon. Yeah. What does the market look like for these small reactors? Who are you going to compete with? It's producing power, and that's what we're aiming to do by the end of 2027. Wow, that's pretty soon. Yeah. What does the market look like for these small reactors? Who are you going to compete with? Well, the market for micro-reactors is one of these ones where it's like, well, there are no micro-reactors today on the market to just buy and use, so what do you think they're going to be, right? And so I think, first and foremost, it's going to be the most critical assets where you just cannot have them go down, which is why defense is the perfect first market for it. And so it's going to be all of your critical infrastructure on every single base that there is. Obviously you'll start with the most critical of critical missile defense sites and off-grid locations, things like that. And that's kind of defense. Then you think about commercial, basically you have to see where the cost curve gets you to “How cheap can it get?” This is just like space. Those first expensive launches into space that better have been a really important thing you were putting up there. But now that launch cost has come down, you can start to be like, “Oh, what else could we do? We can do some more stuff that's maybe not so mission critical.” I think we'll see the same thing in the commercial industries. Oil and gas has a lot of areas where they use diesel generators to do things like compressed natural gas along their pipelines and they actually have carbon commitments, which are really interesting that they're sort of thinking about. Ironically, can they move towards some more renewable or nuclear type resources? So I think there's going to be some commercial applications there too. Mining, for example, too. Anything that's just off grid, hard to power today, really hard to get fuel into. It's the perfect market. Yes, you're probably following the US military, there's all these controversies right now with people talking about fuel quality and fuel contamination issues in Asia, I think it is. But yeah, presumably places where you're worried about fuel availability at all times and ensuring that you constantly have access to fuel, that is the place where there'll be the most pull for these solutions. That's where generators work worst, versus— And there's a famous defense quote, I think it's “Unleash us from the tether of fuel,” which means just like, gosh, the logistics supply chain has been such a challenge. I mean it was 50% of, I think, the Afghanistan casualties were from just logistics, and so having situations where you can reduce that risk helps and it's a great kind of market fit. Yes. You were saying this new market for these small reactors today. Why not? We've had nuclear efficient technology for a long time.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.