I think Seth's hanging out in the Zoom room. Seth's the chairman and CEO of Lightbridge Corporation. He's also the chairman of the American Nuclear Society's International Council. Lightbridge is a developer of advanced nuclear fuel technology, one of the longest-standing publicly traded advanced nuclear companies on NASDAQ. He's hanging out in the Zoom room with us this morning. Let's see if he's there. Seth, can you hear me?
I hear you. Can you hear me?
There he is. Yes, we can hear you. Good morning. Thanks so much for coming on.
Well, I'm looking at everything and I'm like, well, nuclear reactors, we got one brewing right here in Wyoming. What do you think of this Kemmerer power station that's going on here in the state?
Well, I think that's a really good thing. That's a TerraPower Natrium reactor, and that's a new kind of advanced reactor. It's good to see some construction of something new. They've of course got NRC approvals for what they're doing. And it's sort of an old nuclear fuel technology with an innovative new nuclear reactor designed around it. And we're only going to get to a lot of new energy at affordable costs and abundance if we start building and see which of them can be done the best. And this is the first out of the gate for an advanced reactor getting built in the US.
Yeah, I mean, you're talking about why nuclear power is getting a renewed attention. These small reactors, what's the difference? I mean, obviously smaller is probably easier to build, maybe easier to maintain. What's happening here?
Yeah, I think you got it exactly right. The smaller ones are also faster to build, and time is money because you don't get any revenue till after they're built. And one of the big knocks on nuclear has been how long it takes to build a reactor. So, small reactors also potentially can be modular, have a lot of them built in factories or shipyards, so build them in large numbers.
Yeah. I mean, finally a renaissance of nuclear. Why all of a sudden? What's the single factor driving this?
Yeah, I think there's a lot of factors, and one is that there's just such enormous power demands, and a lot of it is by industries, including data centers, that need reliable, constant power that reactors are particularly good at providing. The reactors also will free up America's natural gas for exports to countries that don't want to import gas from Russia or rely on gas coming through the Strait of Hormuz, and nuclear can be done without relying on other countries. We can develop in the US everything we need for nuclear. We don't need to import like we do for other energy sources from China or anywhere else. We're very reliant on rare earths and other materials from China for wind and for solar that we're not in nuclear.
Yeah, because the one here began construction in April of this year. Expected completion target around 2030. So, these smaller reactors, I mean, we're always about the now, the now, the now. You mentioned the Strait of Hormuz. I was just looking at that this morning. What's going on? Is it open? What's happening? I mean, we're seeing gas prices fluctuate daily. What's the speed of these? I mean, these smaller reactors, are we looking at 3 or 4 years? What's the turnaround?
Yeah, so the one in Kemmerer isn't so small. I'd say it's more mid-size. And I'd say it's going to take longer for the first one. And you have people doing welding and all sorts of crafts and trades that they haven't done before. But as they do more, that will speed up. And one of the good things about nuclear is you could literally have years of nuclear fuel on the site of the reactor. So you really can't cut it off the way you can other energy sources. If coal or natural gas stopped getting delivered through trains or pipelines, the plant stops within a day or in some cases immediately with natural gas. And with nuclear, you can really count on the reliability of it running. And a lot of these new plants will run for 80 to 100 years. So that's something you can really bank on and build industry around.
Yeah, it's incredible times here in Wyoming. You mentioned data centers. We don't know what's going on with that. We're thinking, I mean, there's as many as like 60 or 90. It's insane what's on the table. We also have the nuclear reactor here in Wyoming. What do you think's going to happen here, especially in the state of Wyoming in the next few years?
Well, you know, if the state welcomes new energy sources including, you know, more reactors, I think that can attract industry. It used to be a lot of factories and other industrial facilities would compete for where do you get the biggest tax break? You know, where are we going to go to build this automobile assembly plant? And now it starts with can you guarantee us the power at a reliable cost for decades? And if you can't, we're not going, no matter how big a tax break we get. And but if you can, then you're very much in the running. So, a state like Wyoming that does not have tremendous power needs now compared to other states, but is demonstrating an ability to deploy a lot of power, could attract high energy needed industries that often come with, you know, higher-paying jobs and good jobs for the people of the state. And I just think that it's just incredibly important also to prevent surging electric bills in the future to have abundant power. In the end, this is going to have to be dealt with with supply. And just a lot of supply of power will keep the price of power much from going up.
Yeah, you just answered my next question. We're chatting with Seth Grae, the chairman CEO of Lightbridge Corporation. We're chatting nuclear here because, yeah, these smaller units, I mean, this would change the game for US power grids. One, making power a lot more efficient and also lowering costs. That's essential.
