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Nuclear engineer here. Definitely not in the software industry, but still do a bit of coding, albeit mostly in Fortran because (most) reactor design software st

Nuclear engineer here. Definitely not in the software industry, but still do a bit of coding, albeit mostly in Fortran because (most) reactor design software stays pretty far from the bleeding edge. I come to HN for the startup culture discussions. Even though my field is pretty far from the software/tech field, it's pretty amazing how much of the startup experience remains the same. For those interested, my startup, Transatomic, is developing a molten salt reactor that's cheaper than coal and (hopefully) as cheap as natural gas, just without the greenhouse gas emissions. We just closed our first round of VC funding from Peter Thiel and Founders Fund a few days ago. More details here: http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2014/08/05/nuclear-waste-startup-transatomic-power-gets-2m-from-founders-fund/ http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2014/08/05/nuclear-waste-start...

lifeisstillgood 12y ago
Forgive me for leapin in here, but one does not often get the chance to meet nuclear scientists (well on HN it's more likely which is I guess the point) Anyway - I mentally write off nuclear power from the list of useful alternative sources because of the enormous pre-generation costs, the running costs, the politics of nuclear weaponry and the decommissioning costs (and yes this is almost entirely about traditional reactors) How do you escape being in the nuclear industry dominated by the above seemingly negative problems - how much of your success is dominated by selling a mousetrap than building a better one?
- wcummings 12y ago
  Seems to have worked out OK for France
  - lifeisstillgood 12y ago
    I meant the whole "as a startup in the nuclear industry I don't have the backing of an major nation state, I don't have a proven technical track record, I am in an industry with a PR problem only slightly better than chemical weapons and the major reason to exist was to build nukes, which we kind of have plenty now" How does he play that set of cards? It's no impossible and I do think someone needs to play that hand well, I just wonder - why him, why now? What's his secret sauce?
eddotman 12y ago
Sounds really cool. Are there any technical articles/papers available for the public to read on what you're doing? Or are all the details (understandably) under wraps?
- markmassie 12y ago
  Yes, we published our first technical white paper earlier this year. PDF available here: http://transatomicpower.com/white_papers/TAP_White_Paper.pdf http://transatomicpower.com/white_papers/TAP_White_Paper.pdf

lifeisstillgood 12y ago

Forgive me for leapin in here, but one does not often get the chance to meet nuclear scientists (well on HN it's more likely which is I guess the point) Anyway - I mentally write off nuclear power from the list of useful alternative sources because of the enormous pre-generation costs, the running costs, the politics of nuclear weaponry and the decommissioning costs (and yes this is almost entirely about traditional reactors) How do you escape being in the nuclear industry dominated by the above seemingly negative problems - how much of your success is dominated by selling a mousetrap than building a better one?

wcummings 12y ago
Seems to have worked out OK for France
- lifeisstillgood 12y ago
  I meant the whole "as a startup in the nuclear industry I don't have the backing of an major nation state, I don't have a proven technical track record, I am in an industry with a PR problem only slightly better than chemical weapons and the major reason to exist was to build nukes, which we kind of have plenty now" How does he play that set of cards? It's no impossible and I do think someone needs to play that hand well, I just wonder - why him, why now? What's his secret sauce?

eddotman 12y ago

Sounds really cool. Are there any technical articles/papers available for the public to read on what you're doing? Or are all the details (understandably) under wraps?

markmassie 12y ago
Yes, we published our first technical white paper earlier this year. PDF available here: http://transatomicpower.com/white_papers/TAP_White_Paper.pdf http://transatomicpower.com/white_papers/TAP_White_Paper.pdf