What are you building, and why now?

We're developing a compact nuclear power system that combines a novel reactor design with gas turbine technology to generate electricity at much lower cost than today's nuclear plants.

Gas turbines are already one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways of converting heat into electricity. They're used in jet engines and gas power stations all over the world. We designed a reactor that can work with that existing technology, rather than relying on the large steam systems used in conventional nuclear plants and small modular reactor designs.

Our approach combines a novel reactor design with gas turbine technology, which is already the most efficient and cost-effective way of converting heat into electricity. By designing a reactor that can work with that technology, we can make nuclear systems much smaller, much simpler and much cheaper.

Demand for cheap, clean electricity continues to grow, whether that's for manufacturing, data centres or the wider grid. At the same time, governments are putting much more emphasis on energy security and domestic energy production. There is now a real opportunity for a different type of nuclear power system.

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What first made you obsessed with this problem?

I’ve spent more than a decade at BAE Systems working on nuclear technologies. A lot of my work has been focused on the systems that take heat from the reactor and turn it into useful power. When you're designing something that has to fit inside a compact space, you're constantly thinking about how to make those systems smaller, simpler and more efficient.

About seven years ago, I started a PhD at the University of Manchester, looking at that specific problem, which is where I met Tim. That work gradually developed into what became Nuclear Turbines.

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What did you see that others missed?

Most reactor programmes begin with the reactor itself, but our work started with the power generation system instead. We spent a long time looking at the most efficient way to convert heat into electricity and then designed a reactor that could drive it.

That approach led us to a very different reactor architecture. It also meant we could use proven gas turbine technology instead of developing an entirely new power conversion system.

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What was the hardest thing to convince people of?

People often assume that making reactors smaller automatically makes them cheaper. In practice, that's not how it works. If you simply shrink conventional nuclear technology, you lose economies of scale and the cost of electricity increases.

Our design changes that equation. It allows reactors to become much more compact while still producing low-cost electricity. That creates opportunities to deploy nuclear on industrial sites as well as to supply power to the grid.

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What fundamental breakthrough made this possible?

The biggest piece of work was developing a reactor that can operate with conventional gas turbine technology. Existing high-temperature reactor designs use graphite, which means they can't work with air in the way a gas turbine needs. We developed a different reactor architecture that removes that constraint.

The turbine itself already exists; it's a mature piece of engineering that's been refined over decades. What makes what we’re doing different is that our work has been focused on designing the reactor around it.

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Why are you the team to do this?

My background is in propulsion systems and power generation, while Tim holds the Westinghouse Chair in Nuclear Fuel Technology at the University of Manchester and has spent over 20 years working on reactor and fuel design at Westinghouse and the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory. That combination meant we looked at the problem from different directions. I came into it thinking about the most efficient way to generate power, while Tim brought deep expertise in reactor physics and fuel engineering across every major reactor type.

Working together allowed us to combine our skillsets, which is why we were able to come at this challenge from a different angle to find a solution that is fundamentally tackling the industry’s cost barriers. 

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What has surprised you most since building the company?

Probably how many different applications open up once the economics improve. People often come into the conversation thinking about electricity generation. Then they start talking about chemical plants, manufacturing, data centres or other industrial sites where energy is one of the highest operating costs. You realise quite quickly that lower-cost nuclear power has applications well beyond what most people first imagine.

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How does the world change if you're successful?

Many industries are constrained by energy costs. Reducing those costs makes manufacturing more competitive, supports domestic industry and provides a reliable source of clean electricity where it's needed. In fact, lower-cost electricity has an impact across almost every part of the economy.

We'd also like to make advanced nuclear much more accessible to private investment, which would allow it to be deployed much more widely than it is today.

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What does the next 12-24 months unlock?

Over the next two years, our focus is on advancing and validating the reactor design, building large-scale test rigs and preparing to manufacture our first fuel elements. Those milestones will demonstrate the technology at increasing levels of maturity and move us closer to commercial deployment. As well as growing the team and finding people with the specialist skills to deliver this vision. 

From there, the goal is to begin supplying affordable nuclear power to industrial customers and the electricity grid at a much larger scale.