Ed McGinnis, CEO of Curio.
Photo courtesy Curio.
Ed McGinnis know a lot about the nuclear waste problem in the United States. He worked in the U.S. Department of Energy from 1991 to 2021 and directly addressed the U.S. government’s failed effort to build a nuclear waste storage facility in Mount Yucca, Nevada.
“I definitely have marks on my back” from trying to lead the United States in developing and implementing a nuclear waste storage plan, McGinnis told CNBC in a June phone conversation. long-term.
“Basically, both sides are saying it can’t be done politically,” McGinnis told CNBC. “But in the meantime, we have a huge, huge, unresolved problem that represents pretty much the biggest ball and chain on the ankle of what the US nuclear power industry is trying to do. transform into the next generation of reactors.”
This undetermined February 22, 2004 image shows the entrance to the Mount Yucca nuclear waste storage facility located in Nye County, Nevada, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
AFP | AFP | beautiful pictures
McGinnis no longer works for the government, but he is still working to solve the nuclear waste problem under the direction of a start-up company called Curiowas founded in 2020 by brothers Yechezkel and Yehudah Moskowitz as part of their investment company, Synergos Holdings.
The two brothers founded Curio to develop next-generation advanced nuclear reactors. After some research, they decided that there were already many innovative companies in that space, but much less competition to tackle the nuclear waste problem.
The United States generates about 2,000 tons of new nuclear waste each year, adding to the roughly 86,000 tons already created. Recycling nuclear waste is one way to make it less radioactive, but there is only enough capacity in the world to recycle 2,400 tons per year, and most of that is in France (1,700 tons) and Russia (400 tons).
The ten-person startup with pre-revenue is still in the early stages of a long and capital-intensive construction process. But it is expected to have a pilot facility up and running in six years and a commercial nuclear waste recycling facility up and running by 2035, McGinnis told CNBC.
Curio’s commercial plant will have a capacity of 4,000 tons when completed. It will cost $5 billion to build and it will be about the size of an NFL football stadium.
“We’ll take the titles of all 86,000 tons and the federal government and the public will never see that high-level radioactive material on their books again, we’ll take it,” said McGinnis. ‘ said McGinnis. “And we’re going to take the trash and turn it into products and treasures. That’s our business.”
Ed McGinnis, CEO of Curio.
Photo courtesy Curio
Turn trash into treasure
Calling fuel released from conventional reactors is a misnomer, according to McGinnis, because only 4% of the potential energy value has been used. But it’s dangerous, with enough radiation to harm humans for about a million years.
Curio has developed a chemical process it calls NuCycle to turn nuclear waste into usable products, such as fuel for advanced nuclear reactors, as well as possible isotopes used for other functions, such as creating components to generate power for space missions and powering small batteries.
The process reduces radioactive waste by 4% less than the starting process. McGinnis told CNBC that waste only needs about 300 years of storage.
“There’s basically a treasure trove of products and goods waiting to be extracted from what’s called waste.”
“There is essentially a treasure trove of products and goods waiting to be extracted from this so-called waste,” McGinnis told CNBC.
Right now, Curio is “refining and validating the chemical,” says McGinnis. Some of that work involves collaborating with scientists at national laboratories around the country, but those partnerships are in the very early stages.
Importantly, Curio’s technology will be different from an existing process called PUREX (Uranium plutonium extraction)“among other things separating and extracting plutonium in a pure stream,” could be an issue under nuclear non-proliferation treaties.
“We have a process where we never separate pure plutonium,” says McGinnis. “We would never do that because we wanted an enhanced security process. We’ve built in self-protection.”
Jim Geary, facility manager at the Waste Receiving and Disposal Facility (WARP), examines a shipment of three TRUPACT shipping containers on the Hanford Nuclear Reserve June 30, 2005 near Richland, Washington. Each container contains 14 55-gallon transuranic waste (TRU) drums that have been processed and will be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
Jeff T. Green | Getty Images News | beautiful pictures
One of the most challenging aspects of nuclear waste disposal is convincing local community members to adopt a facility in their backyard. “Communicating with the public is very, very important,” says McGinnis.
Curio said it is engaging with multiple states about setting up its facilities there but declined to be named. But he believes that economics will be useful to many local communities. “A facility like ours would employ more than 3,000 full-time, well-paying jobs,” says McGinnis.
McGinnis also said negotiations for a recycling facility will be easier than those for a permanent storage facility.
“I’ve been leading the effort to meet with the states trying to convince them of why they should accept the matter that’s going to be there for 10,000 years. That’s a very, very difficult thing,” said McGinnis. “And I can understand why the NIMBY community sees that as a big deal. But again, this is apples and oranges.” (NIMBY is an acronym for “not in my backyard.”)
What Independent Experts Are Saying
The United States needs to explore new and innovative technologies to solve its nuclear waste problem, Steve Nesbitformer president of American Nuclear Associationtold CNBC.
“As advanced reactors come online, it makes more sense to develop and implement recycling those materials,” he told CNBC. He told CNBC it is possible to recycle the waste and put some elements of that recycled waste back into the existing nuclear reactor fleet, but “it’s more suitable for some advanced reactor designs.” “.
He said he “certainly” knew McGinnis, but added “Curio is keeping his cards pretty close to the coffin, for now.”
Curio’s goals are formidable, Ashutosh Goel saysa Rutgers professor, who conducted research on nuclear waste treatment with a process called “fixing”.
“Yes, what Curio is aiming for is ambitious. However, isn’t that the case for anything in nuclear power?” Goel told CNBC. “If we are serious about reducing carbon emissions while still meeting the energy needs of the nation, we cannot accomplish this goal without nuclear power.”
Goal doesn’t know Curio or McGinnis personally but knows about them professionally. “Ed is a well-known leader in the nuclear energy sector, thanks to his leadership roles in the US Department of Energy. So I’m hoping for positive things from Curio,” Goel said.
Curio is making smart moves soon, according to Ben Cipiti, a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratoryis working on a proposal for a government grant with Curio.
“I think Curio has made a good move in this area because of their approach that uses lessons learned from the past,” Cipiti told CNBC. “They are partnering with national laboratories to take advantage of the latest research and development and the wide range of expertise needed to succeed in the field.”
If Curio succeeds, the work could be transformative for the entire industry.
“Once we solve this problem, in my humble opinion, I think Tesla will destroy the nuclear industry in a way that we have never seen before, because it is a heavy ball. foundation and chain for the nuclear sector – it affects public opinion, acceptance, economics, investors,” McGinnis said. “So when we finally come up with a thoughtful, no-nonsense solution to the end goal, that’s where the nuclear energy sector evolves in my view.”
