That’s what the US nuclear is like Blood of 25-year-old Isaiah Taylor: His great grandfather has been working on the Manhattan Project. In 2023, Taylor dropped out of high school to work in technology, started his own nuclear company, Valar Atomics. Currently, he is developing a small test reactor named after Taylor’s great grandfather. However, the company says that excessively troublesome regulations imposed by the US Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRC), the leading nuclear regulator, forced Vallar atoms to develop test reactors overseas.
In early April, Valeratomic also added another nuclear startup, deep fission, and Florida, Louisiana and Arizona legislatures. Litigation To the NRC. The last lawsuit filed in December by Texas, Utah and nuclear companies accuses NRC of “very restrictively regulating[ing] Construction of a new reactor where that never happens. ”
The United States has historically been a global powerhouse for nuclear energy. Three reactors For the past 25 years, we’ve delayed all our schedules and come online on a balloon budget. Meanwhile, other countries like China and South Korea have been working on building nuclear reactors of all sizes. Some nuclear advocates are primarily condemning this delay, as the US regulatory system, which imposes cumbersome requirements and ultra-long timelines on projects. In particular, for the development of new designs for smaller reactors, several reactors must be collected from NRC’s Pargee. However, others are concerned about potential attempts to bypass the country’s nuclear regulations for specific designs.
The NRC has long been criticized for its inefficient processes and controversial fronts and back when granting ultra-slows with nuclear companies. “The US regulatory relationship is said to be nuclear lawful and hostile,” says Nick Touran, a licensed nuclear engineer who runs the website. What is a nuclear. “It’s kind of a unique American. In other countries, such as France and China, regulators are more cooperative.”
The lawsuit takes these criticisms a step further and argues that by regulating small reactors, the NRC misunderstands a key part of nuclear legislation. In 1954, Congress passed it. Atomic Energy Methodhas created modern nuclear regulations in the United States. The law mandated the regulation of nuclear facilities using nuclear materials that use it “in a quantity that is “an important for common defense and safety” or “in a way that affects the health and safety of the public.”
“We want the NRC to respect the written law,” says Taylor, who believes that the reactors that his company sits outside of its mission is working. “What it does for us is to allow innovation to happen again. Innovation drives the American economy.”
“The NRC will address the case with court applications where necessary,” agency spokesman Scott Burnell told Wired by email.
We generally think of reactors as huge power plants, but reactors can be much smaller. A small modular reactor, or model known as SMR, is usually The third of energy Of the larger reactors, even small reactors known as microreactors have been designed Small enough to be carried by a semi truck. Due to their size, these reactors are essentially less dangerous than large counterparts. The SMR doesn’t have enough power for a 3-mile island-style meltdown.
