The Spark That’ll Ignite Next-Gen Nuclear Technology

All it takes is one little push or spark from the right people to change the course of our energy future. 

Our history is wrought with these events. 

Back in the mid-19th century, a Canadian physician by the name of Abraham Gesner invented kerosene after distilling it from bitumen (think oil sands). However, demand for kerosene for lighting and heat really took off once Colonel Drake successfully drilled his first well in Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania. 

Now, whether you want to argue that the surge in demand for kerosene from petroleum saved the whales from going extinct or not is best saved for another day. However, all it took was one spark from Gesner to set us on a petroleum path that has lasted nearly two centuries. 

Another spark occurred in 1997, when President Clinton had his Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology review the country’s national energy portfolio. 

At the time, there was hardly any support for our nuclear industry. We can’t blame them too much for this, given that it was less than nine years after the Chernobyl disaster took place. 

During that review, one of the recommendations from the committee was to start developing lower-output reactors for use in areas where large nuclear reactors wouldn’t work. 

This, dear reader, was just the beginning…

After that, funds slowly started trickling back into our nuclear research and development. 

It took less than a decade and a group of scientists from Oregon State University to build momentum for small modular reactors (SMRs). 

I wish I could tell you that this story ended with the U.S. racing forward in SMR technology, but it appears we were beaten to the punch.

Back in 2021, China’s Linglong One became the first advanced SMR to be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Construction began that July, and it’s on pace to become the first onshore commercial SMR in the world. 

In fact, the project is nearing completion after the China National Nuclear Corporation announced in late August that the hanging basket assembly was lowered into the reactor pressure vessel just a few weeks ago. 

Once completed, Linglong One will have a capacity of 125 MW and generate up to a billion kilowatts of electricity every year. For the record, that’s enough power for more than half a million homes. 

Now it turns out that some of the biggest tech companies on the planet are envious of this next-gen nuclear tech. 

We have a bit of a problem here in the United States. 

While China has no guilt whatsoever of consuming record amounts of coal, the United States’ coal industry has been in a death spiral for more than a decade. In fact, China mined an all-time high of 4.66 billion tons of coal last year and accounts for over half of the world’s coal consumption right now. 

In other words, we don’t have the luxury of adopting a true “al of the above” strategy when it comes to our energy dynamic, especially not with such an aggressive push toward cleaner sources of energy.

That’s not a bad thing, by the way, but it does present a few problems today. Perhaps the biggest energy issue you won’t hear on the campaign trail today is the surge in our electricity demand. 

One of the uncomfortable truths regarding both the widespread adoption of AI and the feverish push toward EVs is that our electricity use will soar to untenable levels. 

Naturally, along with that higher demand will come much higher electricity costs, with prices expected to rise an average of nearly 20% within the next four years. 

Now, here’s where the interesting part comes into play for individual investors like us. 

The good part is that we already know the direction that Big Tech is going in order to satisfy their rampant demand for electricity. And one thing you can be sure of is that their answer won’t involve harnessing solar or wind energy. 

The problem facing Big Tech is that they need to pump an extreme amount of power into their in-house data centers without resorting to reliable baseload sources such as coal. 

You see, Big Tech has an emissions problem. Unlike in China, where they can just laugh at the amount of emissions that are generated, tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple are waging a public relations war over it — and they’re losing!

According to some recent reports, emissions from these companies may be 7.62 times higher than they’ve stated. 

What it IS doing is pushing these massive tech companies toward SMR technology. We’ve talked before about how SMR technology will soon be making its way into shuttered coal plants. 

However, the latest tech player on the field is Oracle. Larry Ellison announced last week that Oracle was planning to build a gigawatt-scale data center… and that it will be powered by three small nuclear reactors. 

Throw in the fact that Congress is making a push toward SMR technology after passing the ADVANCE Act earlier this summer and we may finally have the spark we’ve been looking for. 

But here’s the dirty little secret: The real money isn’t in building these next-gen nuclear reactors — it’s in fueling them. 

Let me show you where to start looking.

Until next time,

Keith Kohl

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A true insider in the technology and energy markets, Keith’s research has helped everyday investors capitalize from the rapid adoption of new technology trends and energy transitions. Keith connects with hundreds of thousands of readers as the Managing Editor of Energy & Capital, as well as the investment director of Angel Publishing’s Energy Investor and Technology and Opportunity.

For nearly two decades, Keith has been providing in-depth coverage of the hottest investment trends before they go mainstream — from the shale oil and gas boom in the United States to the red-hot EV revolution currently underway. Keith and his readers have banked hundreds of winning trades on the 5G rollout and on key advancements in robotics and AI technology.

Keith’s keen trading acumen and investment research also extend all the way into the complex biotech sector, where he and his readers take advantage of the newest and most groundbreaking medical therapies being developed by nearly 1,000 biotech companies. His network includes hundreds of experts, from M.D.s and Ph.D.s to lab scientists grinding out the latest medical technology and treatments. You can join his vast investment community and target the most profitable biotech stocks in Keith’s Topline Trader advisory newsletter.