Is the United States entering a new nuclear era?

To learn more about the resurgence in nuclear energy interest. We are now joined by Shawn Connors, a Naples resident, author and founder of the Atomic Garage movement. Sean, thank you for joining us today. It's nice to be here. Can you explain to me what is this atomic garage movement? Well, the Atomic Garage movement is a publishing company. We set up to take the topic of nuclear energy and make it more, accessible to popular culture. So there's so many scientists and nuclear energy and engineers, and they're so fact based. But people really learn through stories. So we thought that the good guys weren't telling their story well enough. So we thought we'd invent a fictional character and a scenario where we would have the opportunity to put nuclear energy in a good light and show how it can be a positive for the world, rather than a negative as many people mistakenly think it is. And why are there so many misconceptions about nuclear energy? I'm fortunate. Nuclear energy fishing came into existence just prior to World War Two, and as everybody's familiar with now, the first, deployment of nuclear energy was as a weapon. So Nagasaki, Hiroshima, the Manhattan program, Manhattan Project was all about building nuclear weapons. And we never really looked at nuclear energy from that point as as a source of good. It was more of a source of, of war, and it was hard to shake. It's hard to shake that history and to move it over into, energy production as opposed to defense. And a lot of us also think of Chernobyl, the disaster in Japan. And and it's hard to, balance that with the positive. Well, there's three accidents that happened in commercial nuclear energy and Three Mile Island here in the United States and there, and any other industry that would have been an industrial accident. It was a serious accident. We had a reactor meltdown. But from a factual standpoint, everything operated just like it should in the emergency area. No one was hurt. No one was injured. But there was a lot of panic. And it forever. It's set nuclear back at least 2 or 3 decades in the United States. Chernobyl was the worst. It was a it was a reactor not used anywhere else in the world like that. The training was bad, and they melted the reactor down. There wasn't in a containment dome, so it was released to the atmosphere. And 35 firemen died fighting that radioactive fire. And then in Japan, Fukushima Daiichi, there was an earthquake and tsunami. And their backup generators weren't high enough. So they flooded. And then they experienced a couple of meltdowns at Fukushima. But again, really, nobody was hurt or injured from the nuclear plant was all the tsunami. And they ordered an evacuation of the area because of the nuclear plant. That was probably not the right decision. And a lot of people died in the evacuation. So Nuclear's really saved my world. And data says 0.03 deaths per terawatt hour and terawatt hours are how you measure electricity almost on a state or massive city area. So basically, 0.03 deaths per terawatt hour means nobody dies from this technology. Well, and it seems that Americans are becoming more supportive of the use of nuclear energy. A 2025 Pew Research study showed that 6 in 10 people actually favor expanding nuclear power plants, and that's up up from 2020, when it was closer to one and a half out of ten people. Why do you think that that perception is changing a little bit, if there's no other reason why you want to love nuclear energy? Love it for this reason. It is the bipartisan issue of our time. Democrats, Republicans, red and blue states, people that are fearful of climate change and people that don't think climate change is a big deal. They all agree that nuclear energy is a good idea, and the reason that they do is because that nuclear energy can produce so much energy from such a small footprint, and it can do it without emitting almost no CO2. And, it's reliable. So from from people that want more energy and want to, eliminate energy poverty in the world. They want nuclear energy. People that are very concerned about climate change want new healer energy. So I, I see nuclear energy is a great unifier and maybe it can get us past all this. This arguing is going on in this polarization that we have in a country. But I think this is I mean, President Biden's Department of Energy did a lot to advance nuclear energy. And then, President Trump's administration came in and they continued and accelerated on those programs. But you can go back three and four administrations, and they all continuously moved nuclear energy into a more positive role. And Democratic presidents, Republican presidents, you know, Democratic people and had and Department of Energy, Republican people like Chris Wright, some head of the Department of Energy now, but they're all pro nuclear. It's a unifying concept right now. And that's a good thing. Now, in Florida, our attorney general, James Altmire, has filed a petition looking to expedite the operations of small scale, low risk nuclear reactors by not requiring full Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses. So that's to your point. It's, moving forward to try to encourage, these facilities. I would say all nuclear, plants are low risk. So the new nuclear reactors are a slightly different technology than we're using now. And they have safety features that the current reactors don't. But you're having to move a lot of places to the right of the decimal to argue your point that it's safer. So if you point zero 0 or 0.03 and you're going, you want to go a little bit for the right of the decimal, that's fine. But the safety issues is already baked in the nuclear energy, the smaller reactors. The concept is to build them in factories. And, the idea that we can mass manufacture on and bring the cost down is, is the attractive part about that argument. These reactors, the smaller reactors that are come out, are technologically challenging. And, people that are getting a new deal or for the first time sometimes get, pollyannaish about it because it is a difficult technology. You're seeing states want to open pathways for people to bring their small nuclear reactors in, because once we are able to deploy them, you will be able to deploy them quickly. The electricity would be a little more expensive because it's a smaller unit. The economies of scale aren't there, so you'll want to put them in certain niches. Like in Florida. I could see them being tied into the space program. I could see us using them to desalinate water. And there's a number of other applicant data centers may want to put them behind a meter and put a small nuclear reactor right next to its data center. But, you know, I kind of warn the public, it's coming fast. And when we think about progress in our lifetime, like I'm alive now, and I want, I want all these problems solved. Well, I can see it being solved. But the new nuclear came in about 75 years ago. It takes about 100 years for the next new technology to replace the current one. So by about 2035, these smaller reactors are going to start being deployed. By 2040, they're going to they're going to start being deployed and be economical. And and they're going to solve a lot of problems. But we've got a few years to go. Yes. You are so passionate about this. This is the subject of your very first novel that you've authored called Chain Reaction. And it is in the attempt to help change public perception of nuclear energy. Can you tell me a little bit about your book? Okay, so we set up a mission where we wanted to move nuclear energy into into the popular culture. And we looked at, why hasn't that been done? Why are we looking at the symptom sometimes, for example, or Jane Fonda's movie, which came out right around the time the Three Mile Island, China Syndrome, right. It came out of at the time, Three Mile Island hadn't an accident. And so there's been all this negative or the apocalyptic type of information. So we start to to build a story around a positive aspect, a new killer. We'd want to do a couple things to show its full potential. I wanted to get a fictional reactor that would be 20 years ahead of where we are now. So I talked to nuclear engineers, physicists, and they said, you're basically going to need a, fictional alloy. He said, we're close on some of these alloys, but they don't exist yet. We need alloys that are that can, reflect neutrons, that is light, that can protect you from radiation. Allows a reactor to be light, that can be moved around a little easier. So those can and can be smaller. So we invented Sartorius and that's our fictional, alloy. And with that, I was able to and we advanced the chemistry and we got a, protagonist woman that's, a brainiac. Is that you're Amy Austin is she? She's the main character. She's the main protagonist. So we started the first story. This is our chain reaction starts in 2027. And, she's building the reactor now with the help of her father, who invented sartorius. And there's this. But there's groups of people that don't want to see this technology come into existence. Very similar to the situation. Now, we, It's change. I mean, if you bring in, you know, abundant nuclear energy, there's some people that aren't going to be positive about that, especially if it's coming in fast. Certainly, you know, and we used, actually we used the Wright brothers as a model. So the Wright brothers took a crude wind tunnel concept back then and improved upon it. And using it one tunnel and studying aerodynamics, they were able to jump the technology 20 years. So many people think that the Wright brothers airplane actually flew 20 years ahead of when most scientists at the time thought that would be possible. So we thought, wouldn't that be cool if we could take a nuclear reactor and jump at it had 20 years like that. And then the question starts to become, and how does that change the world? What conflicts does that present? What happens to the geopolitical environment? And, you know, that starts to get to be fun to talk about. So we go around the country, you talk to everybody about that, like, what if this nuclear reactor existed or what might happen. So we talk to people in politics, people in science, and try to come up with a plausible story that, puts nuclear energy in a person's mind in a way that's creative and positive. And you are now working on a second book to follow up to this. The second book is in the works. We hope to have it out by July. And it's called The War in Hiding, and it starts in 2035. After this story and Amy Austin is now on the continent of Africa, deploying this amazing nuclear reactor across sub-Saharan Africa, bringing the people in. You know, the artesian mines and that are in the refugee camps and bringing energy to those camps and then employing those millions of young people in a positive way. There's a lot of people don't want to see that happen. It sounds like a film in the making. That's what it screams to me when you're describing the content of these, books. We we try to write it that way, and so that as you're reading it, you can imagine it as being a story. Certainly. Well, maybe one day it will be. Well, it is just wonderful to meet you. And to, learn all about this. A lot of people don't understand, nuclear power and the benefits and trying to, change that perception is, is is a great, thing that you're trying to do. Yeah. And one of the things I'll say about nuclear energy, too, is, because it is popular and I was involved in it long before it was popular, and now it's popular. And now they want to triple the amount of nuclear energy in the United States by 2050. We also have to triple the work force to do that. We need we need people plumbing, electricity, smart, heavy equipment. I mean, it is really endless the needs that the nuclear industry is going to have for the trades, for certain skills. I mean, you don't have to be a nuclear, engineer to work at a nuclear plant. So to build, to maintain them is going to take a workforce of we're going to have to probably recruit another 300,000 people between now and 20, 50. So for any young people out there that are interested in a career, that may be somewhat eye proof, because you're going to be working with your hands and building things and learning the trades might be an option for them. Great, great information and great insight. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. Yes, thank you.