Welcome back to NYC TV live, I'm Trinity Chavez in studio at the Exchange. Now, Nano Nuclear Energy is making big moves, hitting a billion-dollar market cap, acquiring UltraSafe Nuclear's micro-reactor tech, and working with the US Department of Energy. Joining us now is the founder and executive chairman Jay Yu to discuss what's next for nuclear innovation. Jay, it's great to have you with us.
Thank you for having me today.
So, what do you think has driven your recent success and how do you plan to sustain this momentum?
I think at Nano Nuclear we've been very dynamic with how we've approached the market. Acquisitions—we were able to acquire one of the highest technology readiness level small reactors in America. UltraSafe went bankrupt, that was an awful situation for them, but we were able to come in with our technical experts, engineers, and former US national leaders to assess this. Because of that, we were able to acquire this and now it puts us right in the lead with others in the US. And for us to sustain this, I think one of the areas is growth into demonstration. So we currently are going to reestablish our relationship with the University of Illinois and that will help expedite this and take us to the physical demonstration of the company.
Yeah, can you elaborate more on what this acquisition means for the future of Nano and the broader nuclear energy sector?
I think it'll give us an expedited pace to reach a commercial reactor in the future. What that means is you go through a university and you build a test reactor there, you could get that license by the NRC much faster than a commercial route. So proving that technology out, demonstrating it with a partner, and then taking that prototype and all the paperwork, licensing, and then resubmitting that for a commercial product. So I think that is the ultimate goal to reaching a faster micro reactor product in the world.
And with the US government pushing for faster approval times under the new administration, how do you see nuclear energy's regulatory landscape evolving in the near term, and will this accelerate the adoption of micro reactors?
Yeah, that's a great question. I think with the new administration, one of the themes here is unleashing American energy. And right now with the new appointment of the Secretary of Energy, he was actually on the board of an advanced reactor company, so he already has that DNA, I would say, and understanding of what needs to be done with the regulatory aspect in nuclear. And under the previous administration, the ADVANCE Act also helped break down walls here because that ADVANCE Act helped with expediting regulatory approvals, helping put the NRC in a hot seat almost to acknowledge that we have to change and reform here in order to unleash this American energy and especially this nuclear renaissance.
And Jay, your micro reactors are designed for disaster relief, military applications, as well as off-grid communities, including your recent expansion into Africa. Congratulations, by the way. But how does this technology change the way that we think about energy accessibility and resilience?
Well, with the micro reactor, especially a portable one like we're building with our Odin reactor and our team from Cambridge University in the UK, what happens here is you're truly able to scale nuclear. You'll be able to bring it to remote areas like you said in Africa, where you could provide desalination, powering mining operations. You talked about natural disaster relief—so Governor Cuomo is on our advisory board, and during his time he sent Con Edison trucks from New York to Puerto Rico to help build back its grid there. But he rather had a micro reactor there versus diesel generators. So you're looking at helping combat climate change, providing clean energy, and also that baseload energy that people need immediately, right, without refueling it for many years.
Well, thank you so much for joining us and sharing the big news. We always enjoy having you on the show again, Jay Yu, founder and executive chairman at Nano Nuclear Energy.
Now coming up, we'll dive deeper into Sunday's Super Bowl matchup and find out where the game will be won and lost on the field when we come back.
Money 2020 in Las Vegas, one of the big key topics of today's discussions and panels, obviously, with blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the regulation around that. Talk to me about what you're seeing right now in the sector.
I think the sector is definitely maturing, at least globally, to the point of mass adoption. Of course, we've been seeing this first and foremost in crypto adoption globally. I think outside the US, we are seeing a lot of countries, whether it's Europe, Latin America, and Asia, putting fairly good regulation in place. And on the back of that regulation, we are seeing a lot of adoption. I think the most interesting part right now is that we are seeing a lot of adoption of stablecoins for payments, which is very relevant for this conference, of course. But on Fireblocks, now more than 50% of the volume that we are processing—which is about, this year we're going to process $2.5 trillion worth of assets that are going to move to the platform—more than 50%, so $1.25 trillion, is actually stablecoins, which is used for international cross-border payments.
Can you tell me more about what your expansion plans are from your vantage point, especially when it comes to DeFi?
