Ep. 02 - Per Peterson, Kairos Power

Published: Jan. 17, 2018, 11 a.m.

In this episode we interview Per Peterson, professor at one of UC Berkeley's Nuclear reactors groups. He’s the world expert on Fluoride Salt Cooled High Temperature reactors and a founder of Kairos Power, an Oakland, CA based nuclear startup, pursuing commercialization of that same technology. He has a lot of insight to share in this space including:

  • The true cost drivers in plant construction and operations
  • Civil nuclear energy from the perspective of non-proliferation
  • Public misunderstandings around nuclear waste
  • Theories around various safety design approaches
  • Integral effects test facilities and their role in new reactor technology development
  • How market failures make it challenging to develop new reactors
  • Opportunities to borrow learnings from the success of the revitalization of the private space industry