https://www.piratewires.com/p/general-matter-lands-900m-to-enrich
Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $2.7b of investments in restoring AmericarCOs ability to produce nuclear fuel, specifically via enriching uranium on our shores.
Three companies won $900m each, paid out over the next decade: Orano
Federal Services (headquartered in France), American Centrifuge
Operating (a unit of Centrus Energy, originally spun out of the
Department of Energy), and rCo the only startup on the list rCo General Matter. Last August, Pirate Wires profiled the company and founder Scott Nolan. Solana flew to Paducah, Kentucky, for the groundbreaking of
General MatterrCOs uranium enrichment facility, built on the site of the defunct Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, AmericarCOs last active
enrichment facility, which was shuttered by Barack ObamarCOs DOE in 2013.
As Solana wrote at the time:
-a-a-a The story of PaducahrCOs apparent return to a pivotal role in AmericarCOs energy security is contra almost every industrial trend over
the last half-century. It required local dedication, commitment from the state and federal government, and, of course, the tireless work of
General MatterrCOs team. But before we get into all of that, and for any remaining globalists in the back of the room who never thought this
should, or could, or would eventually happen (the story changes each election cycle), itrCOs worth addressing the stakes.
-a-a-a I donrCOt mean to be dramatic here, but we die without power.
-a-a-a This is true in a sort of metaphorical sense, but also, and more importantly, I mean this literally. From pharmaceuticals and agriculture
to trade and maintaining what are effectively semi-terraformed regions
of our country (a frigid Chicago, for example, or a scorching hot
Phoenix), we require an enormous amount of power. Not simply because
werCOve grown accustomed to the miracle of seeing in the dark, but to survive. Nuclear energy, despite its somewhat confusing status in our culture, where battles for its adoption are often waged with great, righteous indignation, as if attempting to persuade some alternative
course for our civilization, presently accounts for nearly 20% of
American energy production.
-a-a-a In labs across the country, reactors produce critically important medical isotopes for use in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, and neurology. Then, military applications are obvious, as are their
critical importance to our nationrCOs security, and require significantly greater enrichment than anything used by civilians.
-a-a-a In all of this, we need fuel. American companies used to enrich it. They no longer do.
-a-a-a Fortunately, you can just do things.
Once built, General MatterrCOs facility will produce both low-enriched uranium (LEU) for classic nuclear reactors and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for newer, smaller reactors built by nuclear startups
like Radiant and TerraPower. The $900m will go toward HALEU production. People in the industry, IrCOve gathered, pronounce it hay-lee-yoo.
A word on why this matters. During the Cold War, America enriched over
90 percent of the worldrCOs uranium, and you canrCOt run a nuclear plant without it. Today, after a series of misguided deals beginning in the
90s, and a general globalist sentiment that was probably well-meaning
but again misguided, we rely on foreign countries for ~70 percent of our enriched uranium rCo and Russia is one of our biggest suppliers. We ban a ton of imports from Russia but havenrCOt been able to wean ourselves off their enriched uranium teat.
In other words, Russia and Europe are literally keeping our lights on. ThatrCOs not great. ItrCOs a threat to our grid, of course, but also to our national security. (Plus, we just seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker
off the coast of Venezuela. DoesnrCOt seem like a great time to be relying on Russia for our energy needs.)
On a deeper level, a nation should generate its own power. American
nuclear facilities, which werCOre spending at least $80 billion to create
as of last October, need American fuel.
Energy is upstream of all economic activity. Maintaining our countryrCOs infrastructure, let alone building upon it, requires an enormous amount
of power. The more than 150 data centers we broke ground on last year
need power. Again, rCLwe die without power.rCY China produces more than ~2.5x the energy we do today. TheyrCOre on track to produce more than 3x
our energy by 2030. And, despite nuclear energyrCOs mixed reputation throughout the last 50 years (largely the result of Boomers conflating
the horrors of the A-bomb with the miracles of nuclear power) itrCOs one
of the cleanest and most scalable power sources we have.
rCLNothing gets made if fuel isnrCOt made,rCY General Matter wrote when they launched in April.
Read our full profile of the company and why Scott decided to found it,
plus his background at SpaceX and before that, his life growing up as a
kid who just rCLreally liked rockets.rCY
Anyway, the future is bright.
rCoHarris Sockel
https://www.piratewires.com/p/general-matter-lands-900m-to-enrich
Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $2.7b of investments in restoring AmericarCOs ability to produce nuclear fuel, specifically via enriching uranium on our shores.
Three companies won $900m each, paid out over the next decade: Orano
Federal Services (headquartered in France), American Centrifuge
Operating (a unit of Centrus Energy, originally spun out of the
Department of Energy), and rCo the only startup on the list rCo General Matter. Last August, Pirate Wires profiled the company and founder Scott Nolan. Solana flew to Paducah, Kentucky, for the groundbreaking of
General MatterrCOs uranium enrichment facility, built on the site of the defunct Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, AmericarCOs last active
enrichment facility, which was shuttered by Barack ObamarCOs DOE in 2013.
As Solana wrote at the time:
-a-a-a The story of PaducahrCOs apparent return to a pivotal role in AmericarCOs energy security is contra almost every industrial trend over
the last half-century. It required local dedication, commitment from the state and federal government, and, of course, the tireless work of
General MatterrCOs team. But before we get into all of that, and for any remaining globalists in the back of the room who never thought this
should, or could, or would eventually happen (the story changes each election cycle), itrCOs worth addressing the stakes.
-a-a-a I donrCOt mean to be dramatic here, but we die without power.
-a-a-a This is true in a sort of metaphorical sense, but also, and more importantly, I mean this literally. From pharmaceuticals and agriculture
to trade and maintaining what are effectively semi-terraformed regions
of our country (a frigid Chicago, for example, or a scorching hot
Phoenix), we require an enormous amount of power. Not simply because
werCOve grown accustomed to the miracle of seeing in the dark, but to survive. Nuclear energy, despite its somewhat confusing status in our culture, where battles for its adoption are often waged with great, righteous indignation, as if attempting to persuade some alternative
course for our civilization, presently accounts for nearly 20% of
American energy production.
-a-a-a In labs across the country, reactors produce critically important medical isotopes for use in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, and neurology. Then, military applications are obvious, as are their
critical importance to our nationrCOs security, and require significantly greater enrichment than anything used by civilians.
-a-a-a In all of this, we need fuel. American companies used to enrich it. They no longer do.
-a-a-a Fortunately, you can just do things.
Once built, General MatterrCOs facility will produce both low-enriched uranium (LEU) for classic nuclear reactors and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for newer, smaller reactors built by nuclear startups--
like Radiant and TerraPower. The $900m will go toward HALEU production. People in the industry, IrCOve gathered, pronounce it hay-lee-yoo.
A word on why this matters. During the Cold War, America enriched over
90 percent of the worldrCOs uranium, and you canrCOt run a nuclear plant without it. Today, after a series of misguided deals beginning in the
90s, and a general globalist sentiment that was probably well-meaning
but again misguided, we rely on foreign countries for ~70 percent of our enriched uranium rCo and Russia is one of our biggest suppliers. We ban a ton of imports from Russia but havenrCOt been able to wean ourselves off their enriched uranium teat.
In other words, Russia and Europe are literally keeping our lights on. ThatrCOs not great. ItrCOs a threat to our grid, of course, but also to our national security. (Plus, we just seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker
off the coast of Venezuela. DoesnrCOt seem like a great time to be relying on Russia for our energy needs.)
On a deeper level, a nation should generate its own power. American
nuclear facilities, which werCOre spending at least $80 billion to create
as of last October, need American fuel.
Energy is upstream of all economic activity. Maintaining our countryrCOs infrastructure, let alone building upon it, requires an enormous amount
of power. The more than 150 data centers we broke ground on last year
need power. Again, rCLwe die without power.rCY China produces more than ~2.5x the energy we do today. TheyrCOre on track to produce more than 3x
our energy by 2030. And, despite nuclear energyrCOs mixed reputation throughout the last 50 years (largely the result of Boomers conflating
the horrors of the A-bomb with the miracles of nuclear power) itrCOs one
of the cleanest and most scalable power sources we have.
rCLNothing gets made if fuel isnrCOt made,rCY General Matter wrote when they launched in April.
Read our full profile of the company and why Scott decided to found it,
plus his background at SpaceX and before that, his life growing up as a
kid who just rCLreally liked rockets.rCY
Anyway, the future is bright.
rCoHarris Sockel
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