Nuclear is a proven low-carbon energy source, but construction delays hinder its deployment. Boston Atomics solves this challenge with the easiest-to-build plant among small modular reactors.
FELLOWS
W. Robb Stewart
W. Robb Stewart is co-founder and CEO of Boston Atomics. He received his Ph.D. in nuclear science and engineering from MIT, where he researched capital costs and construction risks of current and advanced nuclear power plants. Before MIT, he worked at GE Global Research leading research projects from fleet management to component heat transfer. Stewart holds an M.S. and B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Enrique Velez-Lopez
Enrique Velez-Lopez is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Boston Atomics. Previously, he worked as a mechanical engineer in the nuclear industry in Europe. His goal is to design an easy-to-construct nuclear reactor to help solve the energy crisis and improve people's lives in resource-limited areas. He earned an M.S. and M.Eng. in nuclear engineering and civil engineering from MIT, and an M.S. in industrial engineering from ICAI in Madrid.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Industrial process heat is a hard-to-decarbonize sector because of its high-temperature demands and the low cost of fossil fuel heat. Nuclear power already supplies more than half of the United States’ low-carbon electricity, and it could also provide low-cost thermal power for industrial process heat consumers. However, billion-dollar cost overruns and construction delays constrain the deployment of new plants.
Technology Vision
Boston Atomics' engineering philosophy is design-to-build. This framing centers constructability alongside safety, manufacturability, and operability in the design of nuclear power plants, aiming to reduce the risks of construction delays and cost overruns. The company accomplishes this by selecting a reactor building architecture that maximizes constructability and potential modular construction techniques without sacrificing the economy of scale. The result is a small modular reactor architecture that wholly fits standard modular construction constraints.
Potential for Impact
Boston Atomics' reactor, MIGHTR (Modular, Integrated, Gas-cooled, High Temperature Reactor), could be deployed at hundreds of process heat facilities in the United States and abroad, abating hundreds of megatons of CO₂ annually. Over the course of its lifetime, each reactor will mitigate 15-25 megatons of CO₂ (the amount currently emitted by each fossil-fuel-based heat system of equivalent capacity) while providing fully dispatchable, low-carbon process heat or electricity.