Episode 562: Centrus CEO Amir Vexler on Nuclear’s Comeback and the Fuel Powering Its Future

Amir Vexler (0:00)

If HALU becomes the most dominant fuel source out there for all the reactors, you would still require almost an exponential amount of LEU as a feed to produce that HALU.

SPEAKER_2 (0:17)

Amir, thanks so much for joining us. Happy to have you here.

Amir Vexler (0:20)

Good morning. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_2 (0:22)

So for the last few decades, nuclear power didn't have the same presence in the energy conversation that it has now. It was sort of weighed down by, I don't know, cost overruns, public uneasiness as well. Given how that's changed, what have you been in the seat that you're in? What have you seen as some of the drivers bringing nuclear back into the energy conversation?

Amir Vexler (0:43)

Well, from my perspective, there's absolutely no doubt that the biggest driver that I've seen from where I sit is the conflict in Ukraine. I mean, when the Russians went into Ukraine and subsequently, they were sanctioned. In other words, they could not longer export some of their enrichment into the United States. That's been a big turning point for us here from a policy perspective and just generally from the encouragement of the government, both, you know, Biden government and Trump government, to actually establish a supply chain here in the United States for nuclear fuel. So that's been huge. Combined with the fact that I think a lot of countries have understood that they could not depend on cheap Russian gas anymore.

And nuclear, as luck would have it, actually has all the attributes that whether it's American or European countries, would really be looking towards to get their energy independence. I mean, really nuclear checks all the boxes in terms of stability, in terms of independence, sovereignty, ability to accumulate a lot of fuel and not being exposed to a lot of that.

SPEAKER_2 (1:51)

And so you hinted at the importance in your answer of domestic supply here in the US. And I think as we're watching AI data centers pop up and this broad demand for electricity, this sort of push to reindustrialize, in a sense, the US. And again, that comes with this increased level of demand.

How do you think this surge has sort of reshaped the case for nuclear specifically compared to say other power sources? How do you think we can tie nuclear during this big wave that we're seeing as of now?

Amir Vexler (2:23)

Great question. Well, first of all, let me just give you a little bit of background as to where I stand from. A lot of people tie nuclear to maybe AI or so.

I think there is huge energy growth and energy demand even just outside or even before AI became the hottest thing on the scene. And I think nuclear is looked upon as a major energy source to be able to bridge that gap. I mean, we're talking about a mode of power generation that is not as sensitive to commodity pricing and not sensitive to geopolitical instability.

And never mind the fact that it has no emissions. So, I think all in all, it's one of those topics where we see both Democrats, Republicans, regardless of how you look at the economy or the environment, everybody seemed to agree that that is the source of energy that we want to cultivate and grow. It may not have been the case in prior sort of decades, but I think public opinion and policy opinion has changed on this dramatically.

SPEAKER_2 (3:35)

How important is that change in, you mentioned, public opinion, policy opinion? I'll just call it general reputation, right? How important and how have you seen that reputation, the reputation of nuclear change over the years? Because I'm 30 years old, so it's not like I have a long history with the nuclear. But I would say the reputation and the perception around it is a lot better now than say it was when I was 20 or 10 or obviously when I was first born.

Why do you think that's happened and how important is that for the industry as a whole?

Amir Vexler (4:07)

Well, the first question is of why has it happened? Again, in my opinion, we're starting to understand how global the energy supply chain is or at least has been, and how dependent we are in other countries are on geopolitical instabilities and how that could affect their energy prices or worse yet, the inability to even have energy.

And I think energy sovereignty and energy independence became increasingly important in light of some of the recent conflicts. And once again, when you tally up all the pros and cons of all energy sources, nuclear kind of bubbles up to the top where if you are able to build sufficient nuclear infrastructure, an example given here, for example, France, which is over 50% nuclear, and you look at the rest of the European countries that were curtailed by Russia for gas. I mean, they've done really well, and they provided stability to their consumers. And I think that provides somewhat of a model for a lot of the countries in here in the United States.