Nuclear energy: The company trying to modernize nuclear fuel
Wind and solar power continue to be the most favorable forms of alternative energy for Americans, with 82 percent favoring solar power and 75 percent favoring wind power, according to the Pew Research Center. Similarly, nuclear energy is growing in popularity as well, with Pew finding 57 percent of Americans favoring the energy replacement, up from 43 percent in 2020.
Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR) CEO Seth Grae joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how the company is trying to modernize nuclear fuel.
Grae states that “Lightbridge has reimagined how to design nuclear fuel from scratch using modern technology, modern metallurgy, using a very different approach,” which makes it “cooler in the reactor… while producing even more power.”
Grae notes, as the survey shows, “there’s tremendous support for new nuclear power and that's partly for climate reasons, it's partly for energy security reasons.”
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
RACHELLE AKUFFO: The first new nuclear reactor in seven years began operations in Georgia back in July. And while a new survey from Pew Research Center found that Americans still favor solar power and wind power over nuclear, building power plants to produce nuclear energy is steadily gaining in popularity.
In fact, 57% of Americans are now in favor of more nuclear power plants compared to 43% back in 2020, with support increasing among both major political parties. Lightbridge Corporation focuses on building new state-of-the-art fuel technology to make nuclear power plants safer, more efficient and more economic. And with focus shifting to using more sustainable energy practices, the company is seeing more interest.
With that in mind, let's bring in Lightbridge corporation CEO Seth Grae to discuss this more. Good to have you on the show here, Seth. So talk about how this development is different from the traditional sort of nuclear fuel technology that people have been familiar with.
SETH GRAE: Right. The fuels used in reactors are based on these pellets of uranium, a couple of hundred of them stacked inside a metal tube. And it's been that way for about 60 years with slight tweaks to the technology. So Lightbridge has reimagined how to design nuclear fuel from scratch using modern technology, modern metallurgy, using a very different approach so that we could redesign fuel that makes it run 1,000 degrees Celsius about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit cooler in the reactor than the current fuels do in the exact same reactor while producing even more power, making the reactor even safer, even more nonproliferative, better able to go up and down in power to work with renewables on a zero carbon grid.
And we're partnering with Idaho National Laboratory, which is owned by the US Department of Energy to test the fuel and roll it out commercially. And we're making tremendous progress. And as your polling shows, there's tremendous support for new nuclear power. And that's partly for climate reasons. It's partly for energy security reasons. So we and allies don't rely on Putin for fossil fuels.
