With the global demand for net-zero emissions, we cannot get there without nuclear power, and when I get to talk with experts about nuclear power, it is a great day. But when they are pushing modular reactors with a plan to help eliminate energy poverty, I am all in.
My visit with Jay Yu, Founder, Executive Chairman, and President of Nano Nuclear Energy, was a lot of fun, and we covered everything from the cool branding of their Micrreactors to their plans for helping reduce global emissions in mining. If you want your EVs, you must have mining, which is hugely fossil fuel intensive.
Talking about solutions is critical, and Jay and his team are on that road. They have even considered the fuel side of the equation and have the road map rolling.
Please follow Jay on his LinkedIn HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayyunyc/
Check out Nano Nuclear Energy on their website HERE: https://nanonuclearenergy.com/
Their reactor designs the ODIN and Zeus are quite impressive and will solve some great energy solutions.
Highlights of the Podcast
01:06 – Jay Yu’s introduction to Nano Nuclear Energy and its mission
02:20 – Discussion about Nano’s reactor designs (ZFS and Odin) and their unique features
02:35 – Explaining the concept of solid core reactors and their advantages:
03:47 – Conversation on the scalability and manufacturing process of modular reactors
04:58 – Comparing Nano Nuclear’s approach with other companies in the industry
05:52 – Target market analysis and focus on serving remote areas, including mining operations
07:41 – Discussion on Nano Nuclear’s approach to the entire supply chain, including fuel production
09:48 – Appreciation for Nano Nuclear’s marketing and website design
11:06 – Consideration of Nano Nuclear’s role in replacing coal plants and its potential impact
14:59 – Jay Yu’s background and the founding story of Nano Nuclear Energy
18:58 – Discussion on the importance of nuclear energy in the overall energy mix:
19:49 – Jay Contact information
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Stuart Turley [00:00:08] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley president and CEO of the sandstone Group. And I’ll tell you what. We’re in an energy crisis. We need to deliver the lowest kilowatt per hour to everyone on the planet with the least amount of impact on the environment. And I’ll tell you what. This is critical. We have to have nuclear in order to do that. And I’ve got a special guest today. I’ve got Jay. You. He is the founder and executive chairman, I believe, of nano nuclear energy. Welcome, Jay.
Jay Yu [00:00:43] Thanks for having me, Stuart.
Stuart Turley [00:00:45] I’ll tell you what. Did I get that right this time?
Jay Yu [00:00:48] Oh, Stuart, you got it right on the money. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:00:51] Fantastic. I’ll tell you what. I am so excited to visit with you about everything that you’ve got going on. Because I think modular reactors, we need low cost nuclear power like we’ve never seen it before. Tell us a little bit about nano.
Jay Yu [00:01:07] Nano nuclear is a vertically integrated micro reactor technology company. What that means is basically we’re looking at the whole supply chain, to the reactor end point. So most companies are focusing on just building an advanced reactor. We’re looking at the fuel side, transportation side and and even beyond that as well. So, we have two reactors currently in technical development. What we named them after. God. Stuart. So, I think I think that’s the coolest, point about Nano is we’re very kind of in tune with what’s happening in the world and how to actually market the company. So our first reactor we developed was ZFS. That’s a solid core battery, we call it. Once again, that’s being developed primarily out of, a group of scientists from from the West coast. And then our Odin reactor is being developed by, professors and scientists from Cambridge University, out of the UK. So it’s pretty cool stuff.
Stuart Turley [00:02:20] It’s great stuff. And you got, Zeus and Odin. I love Greek mythology and everything else, but. Yes. What’s a solid core? Reactor? Because I was reading that, getting ready for this interview. And it’s like, solid core, you know? Is this, like, a, solid state kind of a thing?
Jay Yu [00:02:36] Yeah. So it’s basically a solid core. We call it a battery, but it’s a matrix. A it’s a proprietary design. So if you go on our website or you see some of our social media posts, if you see the design, there’s actually two small reactors going on at once, through a solid matrix, which then goes towards a gas turbine. Right. So, that’s how you create electricity. It’s is a very unique and the simplest design in the world that we believe. There’s nothing else. There’s no water coolant, obviously. So it’s just natural air convection. We actually just finished another audit. Idaho national labs with the Zeus reactor.
Stuart Turley [00:03:23] Nice. Now, since this is the size of a large semi, I’m assuming, by the by your website, these are true modular reactors. You can build these in a plant. You can ship them securely. You can have high quality labor and quality control in one location. Did I get all that right?
Jay Yu [00:03:47] Pretty much. I mean, it’s that that’s the whole point about this is with nuclear, especially the large nuclear civil reactors, the issue always is the CapEx, about how long it takes of all this money being poured in. So we we felt like when we were analyzing the market, even the small modular reactors that are, you know, that still cost $2 billion in multiple city blocks. Big. We felt you can’t really scale that up. What you can scale up is micro reactors, right? It could be factory fabricated, built, assembly line, maybe even 3D printed. Right. So that’s the way to actually scale up and mass produce this. And then you could get the cost down. That’s the ultimate goal.
Stuart Turley [00:04:34] Yes. In fact, I. A year ago I’ve in interviewed Thomas Jam with Copenhagen Atomics and they were going on the thorium route, and they’re not going the solid state route. And I love my conversation with Thomas. I mean, he is a cool cat. Doesn’t seem as cool as you, though. So we’ll have to have a, a discussion later on. Who’s you know, who’s the cooler cat, Jay or Thomas?
Jay Yu [00:04:59] No. Hey, it doesn’t have to be me. You can have my CEO, James Walker here, and he’ll. He has a nice British accent. So he could give. He could give another cool side to this.
Stuart Turley [00:05:09] Well, you know, Jay, the fun thing is I’m half Texan, half Oklahoman, and I can barely understand myself, so you already can. Okay.
Jay Yu [00:05:16] So.
Stuart Turley [00:05:18] As we get into the next thing here now on modular reactors and electrical generation in the oil and gas space, there’s, CEOs like Liberty out at, and Chris. Right. And he’s looking at small modular reactors in order to reduce emissions in the field. He’s already got his electric, frack fleet out there where.
Jay Yu [00:05:42] That’s incredible.
Stuart Turley [00:05:44] Where is your target market? Where do you think that short, nano is going to be selling most of its reactors?
Jay Yu [00:05:52] Yeah. So when we came up with the whole technical development, the idea of our micro reactors, we pinpointed our first clientele. Our first customers were the mining industry. Now there’s there’s basically tens of thousands of mines in the world that some, you know, they just leave behind because they have to truck in millions of dollars of fossil fuels, right, every single month to their diesel generators. So now, you know, we have access to these remote areas for mining operations. So most of these companies, you know, they abandoned all these operations because it just doesn’t make sense economically. And just to pinpoint that, again, against the oil and gas industry, we actually did a podcast on S&P global to, the crude plot, podcast. And we we talked about the same thing, how we could reduce carbon emissions in the oil and gas in the field work. So again, remote areas where you have to truck in and bring in all that fuel. We could help replace those diesel generators and and, you know, our, battery core life, you could say, for our nuclear reactors is up to 15 years. Wow.
Stuart Turley [00:07:15] Now, you mentioned supply chain, and you mentioned the entire supply chain. I love that that you have your fuel supply, you have your trucking, and then you have your two reactor modules, if I understand that, two different. Yes. Nuclear modules. How does that supply chain work so that you’re already have your, fuel base that you’re working on? It’s not uranium, is it? Is it?
Jay Yu [00:07:43] Yeah. So I mean it is, it is. Yeah. It is uranium dioxide that, that we’re planning because that’s the most common one that is being used. A lot of companies are using a lot of different technologies like thorium and, and, and, and all that and and and trace. So especially but we want to stick to something that it’s well known and, and we’re able to utilize. So we when we were kind of building national nuclear and our reactors, we started looking at the supply chain like, like you mentioned. And, one thing we noticed was the fuel aspect, you know, some companies like, for example, Terrapower backed by Bill gates, I remember in the news they, they, you know, raise a bunch of money. And then after that, they had to stall their reactor development, because there’s no fuel. Right? So we already knew this was coming, this bottleneck. And and right now the US government is, is is, basically trying to, meet this demand and they’re pouring billions of dollars back into, fuel. And, you know, the field that powers all these small modular reactors is Halo, which is stands for high assay, low enriched uranium, which is uranium enriched up to 20% because anything over is weapons grade. So we need this halo. But there’s essentially none in the US. So we we have to focus our energy on that. So thus we created Halo Energy Field, which is again the best name for this. Organically. We get a ton of traffic just because of the name.
Stuart Turley [00:09:26] Isn’t it great? I like your marketing team, and I want to give a shout out to your web developers in the folks. Oh thank you. I was visiting with my staff today and I’m like, hey, note to self, follow what they’ve done and let’s take a look, because on your website it’s clean, it’s efficient, kind of like modular, you know, clean, efficient. I like your marketing folks as well too.
Jay Yu [00:09:48] Thank you.
Stuart Turley [00:09:50] This is cool. Now the when you sit back and take a look, I visit with, uranium folks and supply chain the thorium. You take a look at it, it’s a mess. And, I think. Yeah. And I have to fact check myself all the time. Jay, I, I went to Oklahoma State. Yeah, sure. You know, it’s like. Oh, I think we import 20% of our uranium from Russia still, you know, and it’s it’s like, and then it’s a refined. Anyway, long story. I am so proud of you guys for taking a look at the entire supply chain, just like you’d mentioned the others that didn’t. The EIA two years ago said the only reason the United States has dropped its carbon footprint by 20%, by, 20% was by getting rid of coal plants. And then the government has said, we’re going to get rid of all of our coal plants. Is is the output of these small modular reactors enough for you to be able to drop in to infrastructure nearby to a coal plant? Because that, to me would be a wonderful market to try to go after some of the inflation reduction.
Jay Yu [00:11:07] Yeah, that’s that’s a great, great point. There’s tons of more modular reactor companies right now focusing on that kind of replacing, replacing these coal plants. So the government has actually activated that, kind of, sector to, to make that transition. You could say, okay, so a lot of people are looking at that. Now has that happen? I mean, it takes a long time, as you know, because, of course, because you talk about bureaucracy and, and tons of and and paperwork and, and God knows how much paperwork. Right. So it’s going to take probably years of, of that type of transition to happen. But it’s already happening. There’s already discussion around that. But yes, we can drop in our output is is obviously our target market is more remote habitation island communities replacing diesel generators so we can drop in and add to the grid. But we’re looking at outputs of up to around two megawatts of electric. So it’s not where it’s not 5 or 20 or 40MW. It’s it’s it’s smaller where we could power, let’s say up to a thousand homes. So you could say.
Stuart Turley [00:12:21] But that’s huge because those that supplying to the micro grid is incredibly huge in those, in those remarkable areas of a thousand. You know, people can’t buy EVs because of the grid and you could drop in one of your reactors because by the time you hand, let’s. Say five charging stations. And they’re doing all the double duty. You could do a thousand. I mean, it would take a thousand homes in order to power those things when they’re fully getting rolling. I could see these things trying to power clean cars, as they say. Yes.
Jay Yu [00:13:00] No. And it that you’re you’re getting to an area where, you know, for example, all these like you say, EV cars, you know, let’s say you’re in the middle of the desert or you’re somewhere, you’re traveling really far. Where are you going? To get the energy. Stuart, like you, there’s no state powering stations, charging stations, like, lined up. So Zeus and Odin can be lined up. We can line them up and then charge to charge these EV cars.
Stuart Turley [00:13:30] Well, you know, here’s where I think you’re going to make a huge difference in the in the migration. We’re never going to get to net zero. I don’t think that that’s that’s a pipe dream. And if we take a look at Texas, Texas with Ercot, they had $3.5 billion of grid transmission lines come in just to get the wind power from, West Texas J. And in in it. That’s 3.5 billion. You can build a few micro reactors for 3.5 billion.
Jay Yu [00:14:08] Oh, yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:14:09] The power that comes in, is not sustainable. I mean, wind goes down, then you get rid of the tax deductions. The wind farms are being canceled there. I mean, wind farms are a real headache right now for investors. So, I think 3.5, I, I my visa doesn’t go that high, but I’d love to buy 3.5, billion of nano energy right now.
Jay Yu [00:14:38] Oh, you know, if you do that, you’ll be a very rich man. Because you’re thinking about the future. So. Yes. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:14:47] I think this, I absolutely love everything that you’ve got going on. How did you get started with this as a founder and an executive chairman? How do you get started?
Jay Yu [00:14:59] Yeah. So, I’ve been a prolific investor my whole life. And, about three years ago, I said to myself, you know what? I’m tired of investing in other people. I’m going to invest in myself. So, you know, I was I was looking at again. I was looking at something where I could put my name on and pretty much go all in. And I was analyzing the whole market. I was looking at agricultural tech, you know, and then renewables, obviously. And, one of the things that caught my attention was nuclear. You know, I looked at solar, I looked at when there’s, lacking innovation there. But with nuclear, it just seemed kind of quiet. And, you know, for, for me, as a Wall Street guy, you know, quiet is good. You want to get into something that no one else is looking at. Yeah. And then and then, you know, you need timing to be on your side, right? You need a little bit of luck. So luck has come definitely on my side on this, but, I kept hearing this acronym SMR small modular reactors. So that kind of thing piqued my interest. And I look more into that. Obviously, I’m not a nuclear physicist. I’m just a public school kid from New York City. Right. So I never got the education or wanted to, I was never book smart, but I was very savvy or street smart and and, you know, I was trying to predict the future here, and I guess I did, this time, and, so I recited my number. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:16:31] It sounds like my wife, you know, you didn’t predicted that you got hit in the back of the head there.
Jay Yu [00:16:36] Yeah. So, I, I flew, to Canada to recruit my number two, which is James Walker, my CEO now, and he’s a nuclear physicist. He has the resume. He worked at Rolls-Royce. He he worked in nuclear subs. So he had the pedigree for me to kind of scale this company and this idea. So when I approached James, I said, you know, I actually want to create a startup in nuclear. And he thought I was insane. He thought I was crazy. He said, are you serious? I said, yeah, I am serious. I said, take this leap of faith. He goes, well, first of all, I changed countries and I changed industries. And now you’re telling me to come back into nuclear? And I said, that’s right. And, and and the funniest thing here is every single week he says, man, this is the best time startup he’s ever been a part of. And he’s just, like, fun. The timing’s been insane. The nuclear renaissance is real. The momentum is, you know, in the. Like everything has aligned for us. And maybe it’s the gods that are helping us, right?
Stuart Turley [00:17:47] I get it. I love it. Well, you know, Jay, this is exciting and I can’t wait to have you on again on any kind of, updates or anything else. And also, I want to have a longer relationship with you guys because honestly, this is critical. And, and, and, I got to give a shout out to Robert Bryce and Meredith Ng when Meredith Angwin wrote the book Shorting the grid. And, I mean, she is all in on nuclear. I mean.
Jay Yu [00:18:21] That’s amazing. I love it.
Stuart Turley [00:18:23] She is, a we I love the podcast with her, and, I am such a nuclear fan. And, I’m going to be honest with you, I’m energy agnostic from a standpoint that it has to be the lowest cost kilowatt per hour. It has to have the least amount of impact on the environment. Oh, you gotta have oil. You gotta have natural gas. You get. Yeah, wind and solar have their place, but you gotta have nuclear. If you don’t have misfire, none of this other stuff is gonna fit. So I mean, we need.
Jay Yu [00:18:58] I agree with you, Stuart. Yeah, I agree with you. And there’ll be this structural shift that’s happening in the world. And people, all these countries are tripling nuclear now, capacity to 2050. So I see this as a 26 years of catalyst for, for nuclear right now.
Stuart Turley [00:19:18] Your your entrepreneurial spirit. I can see you on Shark Tank. Wouldn’t that be great?
Jay Yu [00:19:24] If, you know, I think I think we’re too big for a shark tank, but but, if I was on that show, I think, I’ll, hold my own against the sharks.
Stuart Turley [00:19:33] Absolutely. You would. Your arms are about a 16 times bigger podcast listeners. I can tell already he’s been hitting the gym. So, anyway, I’ll tell you what, I can’t wait. And again, how do people get Ahold of you, Jay?
Jay Yu [00:19:50] Yeah. They could. They could always find me on LinkedIn. I’m probably the only the top Jew there. Five letters g y y u but, Fernando, nuclear, please follow us. And all of our handles just type in then on nuclear and we’ll pop up. We’ve built a cult following. You you actually talked about an EV car? I think one time Elon Musk, you know, Elon Musk is pro-nuclear and he tweets a lot about nuclear. So I think we retweeted one of his things or recorded it. And by default like that, a few thousand of his followers came over to us because they see the vision of Zeus and Odin powering their Teslas. So let’s just say.
Stuart Turley [00:20:32] I got to give a shout out again. I know we just talked about your marketing folks. I love it because it’s all about clean, oh clean energy, nuclear clean website your naming. Man, I, this is a lot of fun.
Jay Yu [00:20:48] So. Yeah, I mean, we we are probably the best marketed nuclear tech startup in the US, so maybe the world I would think too.
Stuart Turley [00:20:56] Yeah, I, I see a lot of them and I my hat’s off to you guys. So. Yeah. We’re going to tag you and send this out. And if we’re to Elon, let’s, let’s make sure Elon sees this because I want your podcast that you and I can go visit him. How’s that? Sure.
Jay Yu [00:21:10] So we do have some big, personalities, talking about us soon. And, and we have big announcements coming out, so we would love to come back on the show, Stuart. And and and announce all of these things with you.
Stuart Turley [00:21:23] At. Please call me immediately. We can go live at any time. We can roll these out. We.
Jay Yu [00:21:30] No problem.
Stuart Turley [00:21:31] We want to be a cheerleader for you. So thank you so much, Jay
Jay Yu [00:21:34] Thank you, Stuart, for your time.
