Gurley says China has 300 nuclear plants in development versus zero in US, with 7-10 year build cycles.
“They have over 300 plants currently either being built or in development. We have zero, zero plants being built, I think 13 plants that are proposed, according to this data that we have here.”
Gurley finds industry insiders surprisingly unsurprised by China's 5x cost advantage in nuclear.
“Right. That's a shocking Delta. Yes. And one of, I would say the single most surprising thing to me of all the discussions I've had in the past two weeks with everyone that's in this industry is how few people are shocked by it.”
Gurley proposes rewriting nuclear regulation from scratch and eliminating lawsuit rights for important projects.
“And if you want to go build this next generation level three plant, I think you've got to rewrite the regulation from zero ground up, like make it thinner and tighter and two, I think we've gotten to the point where we got to say, this is so important, you can't sue these people.”
Gurley explains the NRC is fee-based and environmental litigation prevents nuclear development in the US.
“And so those costs are extremely high. The second thing is litigation. So multiple special interest groups, particularly environmental groups will sue to stop any development whatsoever.”
Gurley says China builds nuclear plants at $2.5B per gigawatt versus $13B in the US.
“The plants in China that are the equivalent level three fission plants right now are coming on board at 2,500,000,000 per gigawatt. Right. So 13 to 2.5.”
Gurley argues South Korea achieves China's nuclear costs as a democracy, making the comparison more relevant.
“South Korea is a democracy, a friend of The United they're at the same delivered price point as And they're doing it at scale and they're starting to export their technology.”
Gurley calls nuclear investment a sport of emperors requiring multi-billions to first revenue.
“If that's a sport of Kings, this is a sport of emperors. Like you may be multi billions to first revenue.”
Gurley suggests leveraging Navy SMR technology with hyperscaler backing as a mini Manhattan Project approach.
“Or for the SMR one by leveraging what's been done in the Navy, maybe getting these hyperscalers behind it. And maybe that's a mini version of a Manhattan project.”
Gurley urges US to respect China and Korea's superior execution and pursue Manhattan Project approach.
“And then two, consider some type of Manhattan project like approach where you get out of the current environment,”
Gurley says hyperscalers as nuclear customers may be 10x better than utilities, bringing more risk-tolerant innovators to SMR market.
“if the hyperscalers become part of the customer set for the nuclear startups that may be like 10x better than selling just to utilities alone.”
Gurley reports China builds nuclear fission plants at one-fourth the US price; South Korea does too.
“So fission being old school, not new school, at one fourth the price that we do it here in The US. So is South Korea, by the way.”
Gurley states China builds nuclear fission plants at one fourth the price of US construction costs.
“So they are building new nuclear fission plants. So fission being old school, not new school, at one fourth the price that we do it here in The US.”
Gurley credits Pinker and others with shifting public perception on nuclear energy from negative to positive.
“Like like, the the the world has vilified this technology. It's amazing technology. It's clean technology.”
Gurley credits Pinker, Musk, and others for shifting nuclear energy perception from vilified to positive five years ago.
“Like like, the the the world has vilified this technology. It's amazing technology. It's clean technology. What Germany is doing is bad.”
Gurley states South Korea builds nuclear fission plants for one-fourth the US cost.
“South Korea, not China, South Korea can build a nuclear fission plant for one fourth the price that we can in The US.”
Gurley proposes global open source standard for nuclear reactors to lower costs.
“And I wonder what if the globe had a standard for, you know, fission based nuclear reactor?”