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▶ 55:00 · Nuclear Energy · Domestic uranium enrichment is the critical bottleneck for US nuclear renaissance
episode briefing
Invest Like The Best

From SpaceX to Founders Fund to Solving America's Nuclear Fuel Problem

2026-04-14 · 8 company · 5 thematic
sentiment
8 bull0 bear0 neu
speakers
scott nolan

Partner at Founders Fund, where he invests in engineering-driven companies across sectors including biotech, energy, infrastructure, and transportation. He was previously an early employee at SpaceX.

now playing · Nuclear Energy
Grid & Power Infrastructuretailwindscore 8/10scott nolan
Energy consumption per capita is the strongest proxy for GDP per capita; US stagnation since 1990s threatens competitiveness
Cross-country R-squared >0.8 between energy/capita and GDP/capita. China tripled US total energy production since 2010. AI/data center demand now forces US to build new baseload or lose ind…
Nuclear Energymixedscore 7/10scott nolan
Nuclear should be cheapest energy on physics (fuel energy density) but hasn't been due to lost learning-by-doing; advanced reactors + domestic fuel aim to flip cost curve
Uranium pellet equals ~1 ton coal; first-principles cost should beat fossils. Historical cost escalation came from stopping construction (lost iteration). Advanced reactor factories + domes…
Nuclear Energytailwindscore 8/10scott nolan
Three-tier reactor market emerging: gigawatt for grid, SMR for data centers, microreactor for remote
Advanced reactors segment by size/application: 1 GW AP1000 for grid baseload; 100-300 MW SMRs for behind-the-meter data centers (5-10 yr horizon); 1 MW microreactors for remote diesel displ…
Grid & Power Infrastructuretailwindscore 7/10scott nolan
BYOE (Bring Your Own Energy): data centers will co-locate nuclear to secure power and win community approval
Data centers face multi-year grid interconnection queues. Building dedicated nuclear (SMR) behind-the-meter solves speed-to-power, avoids ratepayer impact, and can feed surplus to local gri…
Nuclear Energytailwindscore 9/10scott nolan
Domestic uranium enrichment is the critical bottleneck for US nuclear renaissance
US has zero commercial enrichment capacity; Russia supplies ~25% of enriched uranium. 2028 import ban creates hard supply cliff for both HALEU (advanced reactors) and LEU (existing fleet).…