The Alaska World Affairs Council had a packed room to hear from Ben Kellie, the founder of Applied Atomics, as he spoke about the way he is bringing his past work experiences to bear on the future of nuclear energy. After a quick primer on how nuclear energy works and what Applied Atomics aims to do, Ben Kellie and Mead Treadwell had a wide ranging conversation, followed by some excellent questions from the audience.
Key among the issues discussed was the price of energy that one of Applied Atomics installations would be able to deliver. As Ben noted, it has to be competitive – and it will be. There were lots of questions about the safety (very safe, with lessons learned from past disasters and near-misses), regulation (these are proven technologies, so largely work within the existing regulatory frameworks), and permitting (it only makes sense to build where people are willing to give nuclear a go).
About the Speaker
Ben Kellie is a Co-Founder & CEO of Applied Atomics, a deep tech startup working to unlock co-located nuclear fission power provide affordable, firm, clean power in order to unlock the next 1,000 years of energy for humanity. Ben began his career at SpaceX, where he played a critical role in developing their west coast launch pad at Vandenburg AFB eventually serving as Lead Engineer, then went on to build the landing barges for recovery of landed rockets from first steel in the shipyard through the first missions at sea. He then founded The Launch Company, which delivered standardized flight hardware and autonomous launch systems to a new generation of aerospace ventures, successfully bootstrapping hardware to space. That company was acquired by Voyager Space in 2021. He has an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Alaska Fairbanks. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his family.
