Chicago-based Nuclear Startup Has Fuel Breakthrough

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Good morning!

Welcome to The Daily Grind for Friday, August 15.

There was more good news about nuclear this week, straight out of Chicago. That’s our headline for today, plus another preview of Isabelle Boemeke’s new book on nuclear electricity, Rad Future.

Let’s get into it:

📰 One Headline: Nuclear Fuel Breakthrough for Existing Plants

Chicago-based Clean Core Thorium Energy (CCTE) successfully completed the second test for its unique, thorium-based fuel source that could be many times more efficient than existing nuclear fuels.

The fuel is called Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life (ANEEL™). It’s a blend of thorium and high-assay low-enrichment uranium (HALEU), and it’s designed to be used in existing nuclear plants—specifically Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and Canadian deuterium-uranium (CANDU) reactors, a type of PHWR.

In their latest test, CCTE was able to reach burnup levels of 45 gigawatt-days per metric ton (GWd/MTU) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. That’s six to seven times the average discharge burnup for PHWR/CANDU reactors that are designed to use natural uranium fuel.

According to Nuclear Newswire, there 47 PHWRs operating around the world: 19 in Canada, 18 in India (where another two older PHWRs are in “suspended operation”), three each in Argentina and South Korea, and two each in China and Romania. For comparison, there are over 300 Pressurized Water Reactors—PWRs—around the world. PWRs are the most common reactor in the US.

PHWR and CANDU reactors come with tradeoffs. They can be fueled with natural Uranium instead of enriched uranium, which saves time and energy, and they produce a higher output of energy per kilogram of mined fuel. The downside is they produce larger amounts of used fuel per unit of energy.

CCTE’s latest test proves it can generate power with 6-7x less waste.

“Incorporating thorium is the most practical method to enhance the burnup of CANDU/PHWR reactors, leading to a proportional reduction in the volume of generated spent fuel and the frequency of online refueling activities,” said Koroush Shirvan, Clean Core’s head of fuel design.

CCTE first achieved burnup of the ANEEL fuel in November 2024 at the Idaho National Laboratory. The first test achieved burnup levels of 20 gigawatt-days per metric ton (GWd/MTU), which was 3.5 to 4 times higher than traditional PHWR fuel.

The startup is planning a third test, where they hope to reach burnup levels of 60GWd/MTU.

CCTE is specifically targeting India for its ANEEL fuel. “India’s energy-related CO₂ emissions rose by 5.3% in 2024, the highest rate among major economies,” said the International Energy Agency.

India hopes to expand its Nuclear energy program. A cleaner, more efficient fuel could be part of the solution.

🔗 A Few Good Links

It was a good week for Nuclear. Here are two more Nuclear stories, plus a few more good links:

• US DoE: Department of Energy Announces Initial Selections for New Reactor Pilot Program, Including Valar Atomics

• Bloomberg: AI boom may drive over 60% surge in US nuclear capacity by 2050

• Zed.dev: Why LLMs Can’t Really Build Software

  • The comments on HackerNews are worth reading too

📚 One Page: Rad Future by Isabelle Boemeke

Since we’re on the subject of nuclear for the second day in a row, I want to share another great page from Isabelle Boemeke’s new book: Rad Future: The Untold Story of Nuclear Electricity and How It Will Save the World.

This page is about small nuclear reactors specifically—the type that the Department of Energy is now supporting with its new pilot project.

SMRs could provide big boosts to our energy needs, but they aren’t new. Boemeke shares some good historical context here:

Rad Future has been a great read. Highly recommend for anyone who wants a easy-to-understand primer on Nuclear:

❓ One Question: What did you get done this week?

I liked Elon Musk more when he was obsessed with Mars and not Doge, but I do think is infamous question is pretty incisive:

“What did you get done this week?”

There’s no where to run—you were either productive or you weren’t.

It’s ok if you weren’t. There’s always next week to get better!

🗳️ Wrap Up and Feedback:

That’s it for today’s Daily Grind. Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Ben