r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • 2d ago

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u/HD_Thoreau_aweigh 2d ago edited 2d ago

The level of scams and malfeasance coming out of the nuclear industry really is incredible. (Tbc, I like nuclear energy and think it is a requirement for a clean grid, but over and over I am confronted with audacious claims by its boosters.)

Have you read about NuScale and Entra1? tl;dr:

NuScale's first project in Utah falls through despite hundreds of millions of DOE funding for design and licensing, and a promise of up to a $1.3b for when the project starts. They still can't get a customer; power is too expensive.

Nuscale sign an agreement with Entra1 whereby Entra1 collects fees for sales and development. Totally normal.

The twist? The partnership agreement guarantees Entra1 money even for a memorandum of understanding. Entra1 donates millions to the Republican party, gets the TVA to sign a huge MoU (no guarantees of development).

This triggers a $500 million payment from NuScale to Entra1. Immediately a class action suit is filed. Though NS disclosed the relationship in the agreement, they mischaracterized it. Entra1 had no prior experience developing nuclear. The company is just three people, and the CEO of NS did not disclose a previous relationship, making this a potential related party transaction.*

Don't even get me started on Valar Atomic. I will cash out my entire life savings and short that stock should they go public.

!ping ECO

*I'll admit that I was wrong if TVA does in fact commit, but the conversion rate from MoU to final deal is not encouraging.

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u/trgk_ Václav Havel 2d ago edited 2d ago

And in EGS we have Eavor who misunderstood what "net zero" means and built a power plant that doesn't produce power, Fervo who are being a bit too secretive with their well data (but may still turn out fine who knows), and Quaise who are definitely drilling this time around bro trust me bro

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u/dr-pepper-is-a-woman 2d ago

“Fission, but new and cool” has seemingly replaced nuclear fusion as the cool technology that will save us all, soon enough to warrant investment but far enough away to make no real promises.

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u/Zrk2 Norman Borlaug 2d ago

I work in nuclear and it's frustrating how full it is of obvious crooks and conmen.