The Race for the World's First Advanced Nuclear Microreactor Developer

Summary

Bloomberg Businessweek: "The Race for the World's First Advanced Nuclear Microreactor Developer"

Date: November 5, 2025
Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Guests: Will Wade (Bloomberg Energy Reporter), James Walker (CEO, Nano Nuclear Energy)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the accelerating race to develop and deploy advanced nuclear microreactors, with a focus on the challenges, timelines, and opportunities facing this rapidly evolving sector. The hosts are joined by Will Wade, a Bloomberg energy reporter, and James Walker, CEO of Nano Nuclear Energy, to unpack the renewed momentum behind nuclear—and the critical need for clean, reliable power in an increasingly electrified, AI-driven economy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The New Nuclear Momentum in the US (01:28–03:36)

• Recent Surge in Activity: Cameco’s stock soared after an $80 billion US government pact with Westinghouse Electric and Brookfield to build new nuclear reactors for AI and energy needs.

• Recommissioning Plants: Companies like Nextera Energy are reviving dormant nuclear plants, e.g., in Iowa to power Google data centers.

• Past Closure Decisions: US nuclear reactors closed over the last decade due to cost and political pressure, which—although rational at the time—are now being reconsidered as electricity demand soars.

  “Of the dozen or so reactors that were shut down in the past a little more than a decade, it was the right decision then. They were expensive to operate. Nobody wanted to pay that much for power. But the world has really changed around us.”
  — Will Wade, (02:11)

  “We closed that plant [Indian Point] and immediately people started saying, wait, New York State carbon emissions are going to go up this year because we replaced all the nuclear with natural gas. Like, who would have thought?”
  — Will Wade, (02:48)

2. A Global Perspective on Nuclear Buildout (03:36–04:53)

• US vs. Asian Progress: While the US stalled nuclear construction after Three Mile Island (1979), China and Korea have advanced rapidly, with continuous investment and capacity growth.

  “Their nuclear industry is... going nonstop for 50 something years. Our industry pretty much ground to a halt around 1979 with Three Mile Island. So we, we spent years doing nothing and we never really recovered from that.”
  — Will Wade, (04:19)

3. SMRs and the Challenge of Scaling (04:53–06:26)

• Nano Nuclear’s Vision: James Walker joins to explain the realistic timelines and hurdles for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs):

  • The construction and regulatory process is only half the equation.
  • Rebuilding the nuclear fuel supply chain is equally critical, given decades of underinvestment.

• Multi-pronged Approach: Projects are moving forward, but systemic infrastructure rebuilding is necessary for mass deployment.

  “To get a reactor built and constructed and licensed is one question. But the other question is how long is it going to take for the fuel supply chain to be built back adequately in the country…”
  — James Walker, (05:31)

4. Timeline Realities for Modular Nuclear Reactors (06:26–07:22)

• Projected Deployment:

  • Drilling and geotechnical work underway; construction permits targeted for early next year.
  • First reactors could be commercially operating as early as 2030.
  • Widespread deployment (dozens per year) expected in the early 2030s.

  “Construction 2027, 2028, 2029 and then fully licensed reactor operating commercial license 2030 is very reasonable... early 2030s then you’re going to see the mass rollout of reactor systems.”
  — James Walker, (06:34)

  “That timeline fits with what I hear from a lot of companies. Early 2030s for a significant wave of new power plants.”
  — Will Wade, (07:05)

5. Meeting Soaring Power Demand—Interim Measures and Shortages (07:22–09:08)

• Short-term Gaps:

  • Interim solutions like recommissioning old plants (“low hanging fruit”) are necessary but insufficient.
  • Even alternatives like gas turbines are tied up for years; wind and solar are location-limited and intermittent.

  "There’s no easy solution here. Even bringing in wind or solar… these are intermittent technologies which require huge battery storage to run alongside them. A lot of the time it’s just not feasible."
  — James Walker, (07:22)

• Restarting Old Plants: Some previously closed plants (like Three Mile Island) are being revived. Constellation expects one back online by 2027.

  "Constellation says that’ll be ready by 2027."
  — Will Wade, (09:04)

6. Investor Sentiment, Speculation, and the Tech-Nuclear Link (09:08–12:07)

• Heavy Speculation: Nano Nuclear shares are up nearly 90% this year, with a large short interest; investors are betting on both breakthroughs and stumbles.

• Revenue Timelines: While sizable revenues may take years, interim business opportunities exist in fuel, isotope supply, and logistics.

• Data Centers as Core Demand: The hosts and Walker agree that the surge in large, energy-hungry data centers is not a transient bubble.

  “The stock market is always about an investment in the future… The demand is there in a way that’s unprecedented.”
  — James Walker, (10:35)

  “A data center cannot be a bubble… If you need increased power for computing power, it has to come from somewhere. Whether that’s going to bear out the fruits of what’s been promised, that remains to be seen.”
  — James Walker, (11:17)

• Shorting and Volatility: Walker takes a wry view of short sellers:

  “If people want to short us, that’s better, because we’ve gone higher and higher as a stock just because every time the shorts have been squeezed, the more shorts the better for us.”
  — James Walker, (11:46)

7. Who Is Furthest Along? (12:07–12:27)

• Nano Nuclear’s Edge:

  “In the terms of micro reactors? Yes, 100%. I believe we’ll have the first US constructed full scale, commercially licensed microreactor in the country.”
  — James Walker, (12:15)

8. Memorable Closing Moment (12:27–12:35)

• Lighthearted Banter:
  • Host jokes about putting an SMR in their backyard to lower electric bills.
  • “Carol, you glow. You’re glowing today.”
    — (Exchange between hosts, 12:33)

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "The world has really changed around us." — Will Wade (02:11)
• "You can put an SMR in my backyard because my monthly electrical bills are crazy." — Host (12:27)
• "In terms of micro reactors? Yes, 100%. I believe we’ll have the first US constructed full scale, commercially licensed microreactor in the country." — James Walker (12:15)
• "A data center cannot be a bubble... If you need increased power for computing power, it has to come from somewhere." — James Walker (11:17)
• "There’s no easy solution here. Even bringing in wind or solar… these are intermittent technologies which require huge battery storage..." — James Walker (07:22)

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 01:28-03:36: US nuclear sector’s political and historical context
• 03:36-04:53: International context—why Asian countries outpace the US
• 04:53-07:22: Inside the SMR race—timelines, supply chain, and technical challenges
• 07:22-09:08: Power demand crisis, interim solutions, and restarting old plants
• 09:08-12:07: The wall between investor hype and commercial reality for nuclear startups
• 12:07-12:35: Who is ahead in microreactors, plus closing banter

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Summary Takeaway

This episode portrays a nuclear renaissance—but one fraught with daunting timelines, supply chain rebuilds, and soaring expectations from investors and the tech sector. America’s capability to lead this new wave depends not just on financing and policy, but holistic infrastructure rebuilding and a sober reckoning with what kind of power society demands. Despite the excitement, practical deployment is measured in years, not months, and only creative interim solutions and disciplined investment will keep the lights on until then.

Transcript

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[C]

You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvik on Bloomberg Radio. Shares of Canadian uranium producer Cameco rose as much as 27% to a record high today. This after the US government signed a pact with Westinghouse Electric, Cameco and Brookfield that will see at least $80 billion of new nuclear reactors constructed in the US to accelerate nuclear power and AI deployment. And breaking late yesterday, Nextera Energy planning to restart a nuclear power plant in Iowa, primarily to supply Google data centers. We got Will Wade with us. He's Bloomberg News energy reporter. He joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. Did the US Make a mistake well, in shutting down nuclear reactors over the.

[D]

Last few years, that's a tough question. When they made those decisions to shut down reactors and I used to keep a spreadsheet on my desk, I call it the dead Nukes file. Of the dozen or so reactors that were shut down in the past a little more than a decade, it was the right decision then. They were expensive to operate. Nobody wanted to pay that much for power. But the world has really changed around.

[C]

Us and I think at Indian Point close to New York City, that one was didn't it outlive its? Its now it's like life cycle. It was sort of at the end of its life.

[D]

Oh, no, it was closed ahead of time.

[C]

It was closed ahead of time.

[D]

Yeah. That was a big political campaign. There were people that were really worried about having a nuclear power plant so close to the biggest city in America. I mean, that's a legitimate concern. But we closed that plant and immediately people started saying, wait, New York State carbon emissions are going to go up this year because we replaced all the nuclear with natural gas. Like, who would have thought?

[E]

So it does feel like we mentioned the US signing an $80 billion pact to boost nuclear power in that AI push Google buying power from next era nuclear power plant being revived. So the spend is on, the deals are on. Is the build on though, to really build out maybe the nuclear capacity that's needed?

[D]

Oh, building nuclear. No, nobody's doing that.

[F]

That's.

[C]

But the money's there, the commitments are there. The mothballing is being undone.

[D]

Okay, so here's what we're seeing. There is an enormous amount of interest in nuclear energy right now. I've been seeing it for 18, 24 months. This is because electricity demand is going to go through the roof. That's largely for data centers and AI. It's not just that. It's for a lot of things, but that's the big part of it. We need new electricity. We need a lot of it. We did not see this coming. We were not building new nuclear plants at the same time. We would love our electricity to be clean. So that really makes nuclear the best option because it's available around the clock, unlike wind and solar.

[E]

Right.

[C]

How quickly can nuclear power plants be built outside of the United States and China, Korea, Japan?

[D]

Oh, China's really good at building them. They've, they've been doing it nonstop. They got, I think they're soon going to surpass the US in terms of the number of reactors they've got going. So yeah, they're, they're faster than at it, than us. The Koreans are really good at it. I was in Korea this year. Their nuclear industry is. They've been going nonstop for 50 something years. Our industry pretty much ground to a halt around 1979 with Three Mile Island. So we, we spent years doing nothing and we never really recovered from that. We're working on it.

[E]

Well, we're going to keep. Will Wade with us, Bloomberg News energy reporter. Someone else who's working on it too, to build out nuclear capacity is James Walker. He's CEO of Nano Nucle Energy. It's a $2.3 billion market cap nuclear energy company that is working on SMR small modular reactors. Shares are up nearly 90% so far this year. A big chunk though of the float is short. James joining us from Vancouver. James, come on in on this conversation. I mean realistically, how long before we actually, you actually get an SMR built and it's up and running?

[F]

It's, it's a good question because it gets asked as you can imagine, more than any other question. And there's kind of two answers to it too because to get a reactor built and constructed and licensed is one question. But the other question is how long is it going to take for the fuel supply chain to be built back adequately in the country to be able to mass manufacture the fuel to allow the mass manufacture of reactors. So on one side we, our company is already going ahead with a construction project, two construction projects to build reactor systems and we're talking to data centers and all of those, all of those sort of groups as well. But on the other side, like you know, we even our company, we need to get involved in that fuel supply chain and build it back because as well was saying just before this sort of after Three Mile island, the investment into the country sort of broke down a lot. We need that investment to go back into rebuilding that fuel supply chain so companies like ours can mass manufacture the reactor systems.

[C]

But James, on Carol's question about a timeline here, what would be a realistic timeline for completion of your first modular nuclear reactor?

[F]

So we're doing a drill program right now. It's just already started to on the site. So we'll have the geotechnical data to submit for a construction permit that'll go in early next year and I'll see will turn that around in 2026. So construction 2027, 2028, 2029 and then fully licensed reactor operating commercial license 2030 is very reasonable timeline. So I would say early 2030s. Then you're going to see the, the mass rollout of reactor systems. So dozens on an annual basis.

[D]

Yeah, that, that timeline fits with what I hear from a lot of companies. Early 2030s for a significant wave of new power plants. But I guess the issue is that we have all these people who want power yesterday. How do we meet their needs?

[F]

Look, this is, it's actually a very reasonable question. As a company we, you know, we want to be conservative and truthful with everybody because you know, we've got to earn long term trust here. There are good interim solutions. Like I, I know companies have been exploring things like gas and, and to be honest, if they can get hold of that in the interim, great. But even things like gas contracts, they're all tied up for seven, eight years. Turbines around gas are tied up for seven, eight years to. So it's, there's no easy solution here. Even bringing in, as you mentioned, like wind and solar or anything like that. These are intermittent technologies which require huge battery storage technology to run alongside them. A lot of the time it's just not feasible. They're also very locationally dependent, so you'd be limited on where you can even deploy these things. I mean, unfortunately there's no, there's no great solution. Which is why when the show started, they were talking about opening up these old power stations and recommissioning old nuclear power plants. Because those are the, some of them are the interim solutions. It won't be enough power, but it'll be some.

[D]

Yeah, those restart projects, that's the low hanging fruit. Do you think there are other plants that we can restart or is it just the ones we've already seen is are we exhausted that list?

[F]

So it's a good question. Like this, a number have been shut down and like it's arguable. You mentioned Indian Point as an example. I know it wasn't politically popular and maybe there was some, some of that related to the decisions around that kind of plan. That could be an, that could be a route. Even the old Three Mile island plant, since we bring that up, is I think it's either Microsoft or Constellation were involved in recommissioning that and trying to get that back up and running.

[D]

Yeah, Constellation says that'll be ready by 2027.

[F]

There we go. So like, you know, I think as you say, like there's going to be big projected power demand increases in the country. They might not get solved until we get to those 2030s. And that the problem there is that that could mean a stagnation in the tech industry. They'll, they'll find every means they can to get power. But like that big online colocation, green technology that provides baseload power that can only really come from nuclear. And a lot of these reactor systems, despite any really outlandish claims about deploying near term, it's going to be early 2030, 2030 and onwards.

[E]

All right, so the demand story is compelling, yet the obstacles are just as apparent. Those aren't my words. Those are Will Wade's words. Who reports on this sector, as you well know. I mean, help me out here though, because I'm just wondering, you know, if I'm looking at a stock that is up 80% year to date. You know, you guys don't have any revenues, right? I mean like our investors, you know, this is what we do. Like are they probably getting ahead of themselves? 30% of your float is short. So investors are just kind of waiting for something maybe negative to hit because they're negative the sentiment. I mean realistically you're talking at least five years right before you're showing significant revenue or earnings or anything along those lines.

[F]

No, like earnings. And our company will come online a long time before that. I mean, because there's this massive build back. The opportunity at the moment in the nuclear space is huge. It can come through the fuel supply chain or transportation or isotopes. Like the nice part is that we're part of this build back effort. So. And look, the stock market is always about an investment in the future. I mean the nice part is that the demand is there in a way that's unprecedented. Like buying now really is an investment in the future and a future that's inevitably ball. The tech industry is not going to just give up and pack up and go away.

[E]

But what if, what if the AI, what if the spend and build, that is, I know everybody comes out and says no bubble or a lot of people do. What if there is though an overspend? Where does that catch you guys?

[F]

Potentially, I think the bubble has only been discussed around AI but like in terms of data centers, those are things that cannot be bubbles. That is power that's needed for a whole tech industry. Like a data center cannot be a bubble. Like if you need increased power for computing power, it has to come from somewhere. I whether whether that's going to bear out the fruits of what's been promised, that remains to be seen. But, but currently it's just expanding. But it's kind of irrelevant to the long term power requirements because the electrification of the country, the re industrialization of the country, that's all going ahead. And, and you mentioned stocks like in the short interest. Great. If people want to short us, that's better because we've, we've gone higher and higher as a stock just because every time the shorts have been squeezed, the more shorts the better for us.

[C]

James, only only 10 seconds left. But would you say that you are most further along than any other company, the most along than any other company.

[F]

In the terms of micro reactors? Yes, 100%. I believe we'll have the first US constructed full scale, commercial, commercially licensed microactor in the country?

[E]

Well, you can put an SMR in my backyard because my monthly electrical bills are crazy. We're shutting off lights.

[C]

Carol, you glow. You're glowing today.

[E]

Yeah, I'm glowing. Will Wade, Bloomberg News and James Walker, CEO of Nano Nuclear Energy. Guys, thank you so much. Great discussion right here on Bloomberg.

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