All language subtitles for Tomorrows.World.Today.S04E11.Nuclear.Does.What.Now.720p.WEBRip.x264-KOMPOST_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Join us
on Tomorrow's World Today

as we journey through
the worlds of inspiration,

creation, innovation,
and production.

To find the ideas
and technologies

that are shaping our future.

In the final part
of our four-part exploration,

we explore how nuclear energy

is helping
with space exploration.

We close with a round table
conversation

with some of nuclear energy's
top minds

to discuss what
nuclear energy looks like

in tomorrow's world.

Hi everyone.

Welcome to episode four

of our four-part exploration

on nuclear energy.

Now, in the previous
three episodes,

we learned
about the past, present,

and future of nuclear power

including how microreactors

are bringing energy
to some of the most remote

and hardest to power locations
on earth.

But today, we are heading
out of this world.

That's right, we're gonna
learn about nuclear energy

and space exploration,

specifically nuclear propulsion

and power.

Now, we're gonna start
right here in DC.

We're gonna head over
to X-energy

and learn about fuels

and next generation reactors.

Then, we're gonna head
back out to Idaho

to learn how nuclear energy
is powering

the Mars Perseverance Rover.

Right now, let's head over
and meet Clay Sell,

he's the CEO of X-energy.

- Hey, Clay.
- Hey, Greg.

- Welcome.
- Oh, thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to be here today.

I'm super excited to learn
what it is you guys do here.

Well, we're a nuclear reactor

and fuel design
engineering company.

Great. Now, I know
that you're also doing

some really innovative things
with fuel

for space travel and such.

We'll learn about that
in a little bit

but right now,
tell me about this reactor.

Well, we are first focused
on applications

for this earth, this planet,

and this is our standard
utility model.

This is the reactor,
it's about 25 meters tall.

It's filled with uranium fuel
and it produces heat.

The heat then goes
to the steam generator

where it's turned into steam,

and that steam spins
a turbine generator

to produce electricity
for about 80,000

- American homes.
- That is awesome.

Now, space travel
and nuclear power,

not usually something
that people think of

at the same time, you know,
reactors are big and heavy

and, you know, in space travel,

you need light and compact,

but I know
that you're really doing

some really advanced stuff
with fuel

and I'd like
to find out more about that.

We're doing some
amazing things with fuel.

Let me take you next door
and show you.

Lead the way.

So Clay,
I know that one of the areas

where you're making real
innovations

is in nuclear fuel and TRISO-X

is what's happening right now.

So, explain to me how we're...
What we're looking at?

Well, the most important thing
about this fuel

is we've designed it
and engineered it

so it cannot melt
in any scenario

inside the reactor.

And that's one of the key
safety attributes

that are central
to the reactor design.

Let me tell you how we do it.

So, we start
with the uranium chemistry,

in this case,
it's uranium-enriched

to fifteen and a half percent.

This little kernel is about

half a millimeter in diameter.

And then, we have a process
by we coat it four times

in various types
of ceramic material.

So, you end up with a little
containment vessel

about the size of a poppy seed
and this containment vessel

during the life of the uranium,

when it burns up,

it will contain 99.999%

of all the waste produced
burnt during burn up.

So it makes
for a very robust fuel,

it makes for an incredibly
safe fuel.

It makes for a fuel
that cannot melt down.

And then, we take 19,000
of these kernels

and we put it into a fuel form,

we evenly space them out,

they're evenly dispersed,
we can measure that

and we put
a graphite rayon on it,

and then, this is the fuel form

that actually goes
into the reactor.

So it can't melt and you're also

containing the nuclear waste.

That's true.
And you know what's exciting?

This single pebble
has enough energy in it

to power an electric vehicle

- almost 100,000 miles.
- Wow.

Which would take you
around the earth four times.

That's amazing.
You're ready to go?

- Let's do it.
- So, say we're not fueling up

the family station wagon
with this thing.

We're using it
in one of your reactors.

- Tell me how that works.
- Well, we would take

220,000 of these.

We would load them
into the reactor core barrel,

just like gumballs
in a gumball machine.

We would pull
the control rods out

and that would start
the nuclear chain reaction

which produces heat.

That heat would be transferred

from the reactor core barrel

to the steam generator
with helium,

that's our heat-transfer fluid.

This pebble
would work its way down

through the core barrel
for about six months

and then it would get
to the bottom

where we have a burn up
measurement system

to see if there's
still fuel in it.

If there's still
good fuel in it,

it goes back to the top

and will take
another six-month trip

through the core barrel.

A typical fuel pebble like this

2in our design
will take six trips

through the reactor core barrel.

And at the end
of those six trips,

you have essentially
an empty vessel

but anything that is
and still in there

is gonna be contained
right within that pebble.

Well, almost all of the usable
special nuclear material

has been burned up,
so that's a huge benefit.

This ceramic
and graphite fuel form

retains all
of the long-lived waste

that has been produced
during the burn up.

So, this great,
beautiful fuel form

actually becomes
a spectacular waste form

because this thing
will last forever

and it will keep
all of the waste in here

for tens of thousands of years.

Excellent. So, how would you
control a reactor like this?

Greg, do you like to play
video games?

- A lot.
- Then you need to see

our reactor room
simulator mock up.

- Let me show you.
- Lead the way.

[mellow music playing]

Greg, let me introduce you
to Yvotte Brits.

Greg, welcome.

Oh, great to meet you, Yvotte.

Thanks Clay.

Well Yvotte, I mean,
it goes without saying

that this looks like
the arcade room of my dreams,

but I know that it's a lot
more than that.

This is an actual
graphic representation

of the reactor that Clay and I
were just discussing.

[Yvotte] Yes, Greg.
This is very exciting.

This is the toolset
that we are using

to train our operators.

We have a single
control room to operate

four reactors, four turbines

for a total of three operators

in the control room.

The control room
is also modular,

we can add more reactor units

as the client wants more.

On the screen here, you will see

we have a nuclear island
and a conventional island.

The nuclear island
stays consistent

no matter what the client wants

- on the conventional island.
- So the client can determine

if they want steam
or electricity

or co-generation,
they'd get to pick that.

- Yes Greg, that is correct.
- That's cool.

Let me show you the toolset
that we are using

for the maintenance and
for the security personnel.

In the absence of a real plant,

we are relying
on 3D virtual reality models

to train up our maintenance
and security personnel.

So, please put on
the virtual reality goggles.

Oh, I have been
looking forward to this.

Greg, so what you see
in front of you is the reactor

coupled to the steam generator

and of the fuel handling system

doing the online refilling.

That's amazing. You can see...
Even see the pebbles

going through the system
and these are the fuel pebbles

that Clay and I
discussed earlier.

[Yvotte] Yes, that is correct.

That is absolutely awesome,
Yvotte.

- Hey, Clay.
- Hey, Greg.

- So, what do you think?
- Well, I think

this is all pretty amazing but
what I really want to know now

is how you're gonna take all
of this terrestrial technology

and send it up into space?

Well, the great thing about it
is the same fuel

and the same engineers
that have been

so successful here on earth

are perfectly suited
for space applications.

- Let me explain it to you.
- Sounds great.

- Yvotte, thank you very much.
- Thanks. Great to meet you.

Hey Greg, do you have any idea
how long it takes

to take a rocket to Mars?

Well, from everything I've read,

between six and nine months.

That's right.
And what's exciting

with the technology
we've developed here,

a version of that
can be used to build

a thermal nuclear
propulsion system

that will shorten that trip

- to half the time.
- That's amazing.

It's really important
for astronauts,

they're exposed
to tremendous cosmic radiation

during that contemplated
long trip to Mars,

and if we can shorten
that trip, cut it in half,

that has a huge benefit
for the astronauts.

Right. That's one
of those things that folks

don't really consider
'coz they think,

well, there's space stations
up there

for years and years and years,

but there's space,
and then, there's outer space.

And you know the space stations

actually still contain within
the earth's magnetosphere

so it's protected from all
of that cosmic radiation.

But once you get beyond that,
all bets are off.

Yeah.
Let me tell about something

that we're working on
that's one step further out

and that is a permanent
installation

on the lunar surface.

It's something that's really
being talked about a lot.

We're talking about humans
on the surface of the moon

for long periods of time
and they need a power source.

But with the lunar night,
which lasts 14 earth days,

they need something better
than solar arrays

and batteries to survive
the lunar night.

And that's where a nuclear
fission surface power system

that applies a lot
of the same principles

that we've developed here
on earth

is being developed for the moon.

So, that's gonna get us
to the moon,

get us to Mars,
and then even beyond.

That's true. And again,

it relates to a lot
of the technology

we developed here.

From our fuel form

which is, you know,
ceramic encapsulated

can achieve
very high temperatures,

has very long life,
that's important.

The instrumentation
and control system

that we've developed
for our reactors here

will be necessary on the moon.

A lot of the materials
that were produced

to achieve
very high temperatures

will be necessary
to that nuclear

thermal propulsion system

and many other
of the technologies

that we're developing
are directly applicable

- to nuclear space application.
- Even this control room?

- Even this control room.
- All right.

Well, I know that there's
nuclear power right now

on the surface of Mars

powering the Perseverance Rover

and I'm heading out
to Idaho Falls

to find out all about that.

Well, thanks so much
for being here.

- Have a great trip to Idaho.
- Thank you, Clay.

This has been amazing.

Now, if you've ever blown up
a balloon

and then the air out
and watched it

whizz around the room,
that's a similar concept

to nuclear thermal propulsion.

Now, nuclear thermal
propulsion rockets

use a nuclear reaction
to heat up liquid hydrogen.

Once that hydrogen
is heated up, it expands,

then it's forced
through a nozzle

and that produces thrust.

I'm at the Idaho
National Laboratory

Space & Security
Power Systems Facility.

I'm gonna talk to Steve Johnson

and we're gonna learn
how nuclear propulsion

is going to help get humans
to Mars faster.

- Hey, Steve.
- Hey, Greg.

- Welcome to Idaho.
- Thanks for having me.

I'll tell you,
your work with NASA

and the Mars Perseverance Rover,

it really couldn't be
more exciting,

so please tell me more about it.

All right. Let's take a look
at this selfie

taken by the Perseverance Rover.

You can see
our power system here,

you can the ingenuity
helicopter here,

and you can see

with this 3D model
behind us here,

you can see the thermoelectrics

which turn the heat
from the heat sources inside

into electrical power.

It's 2 feet in diameter,

it's 2 feet tall,
it weighs about 100 pounds...

Well, 110 to 120 watts electric.

Similar to the Curiosity Rover
that landed in 2012,

they last for several years
in terms of the power system

and it's a great way
to get around Mars.

We have the acceptance
testing facilities here

and fueling facilities.

I'd really like
to show this to you.

Do you have time for that?

- Absolutely.
- All right. Let's go.

[mellow music playing]

[mellow music playing]

So Steve,
this is where you would

actually put the fuel source
for the rover together?

Yes, Greg.
This is where we take

the general-purpose
heat source modules,

we stack up a total
of eight of these

inside the glove box

and each of those has four
of these heat sources in it.

And we will stack them up
in the specialized fixture

and pick them up with this tool,

put them down
inside the power system,

that's a multi-mission
radioisotope

thermoelectric generator

or MMRTG for short.

This operation takes about
three weeks.

Most of it is prep time
and everything

but there's a couple
or three days

of exciting stuff in the middle.

Once it comes out of here,
it's a fully functioning RTG.

It needs to go through
acceptance testing

which is vibrational testing,
center of mass testing,

magnetic field testing,
and the vacuum testing.

The first thing
we do out of here

is the vibrational testing.

Would you like to take
a look at that?

Absolutely. Let's go see it.

Follow me.

So Steve,

I know that all elements
of testing in this

have to be vitally important
but I can't imagine

that there's a better
opportunity for something

to go wrong
than during a launch.

You're absolutely right, Greg.

So, that's why we place
a lot of emphasis

on vibrational testing.

We do it on all three axes.

This is the horizontal
flip table.

We will mount the MMRTG on here.

Our vibrator head here
will then agitate

in the X direction.

We'll rotate
the MMRTG ninety degrees,

we'll call that Y agitation.

And then we can decouple it

from that horizontal flip table,

rotate the head up,

mount the MMRTG in the top

and we'll get our Z direction.

We typically look
at zero to 5,000 hertz,

sine, random sine shock

and that gives us
the information we need.

Okay. Now, you're gathering
that information

by monitoring this how?

Yes, yes. We have 31
separate transducers

and accelerometers
that are wired to the body

of the MMRTG that allows us

to carefully monitor it,

make certain nothing is damaged

and then we get all
the information we need.

Great. Well, can we see
this thing in action?

- Can we fire it up?
- Yes, yes. We can.

Why don't we put
our safety gear in?

- Our...
- [Greg] All right.

earplugs...

and let me give the guys a call.

Hey, are we ready
to shake this thing?

[whirring]

So, Steve. Pretty impressive.

Now, I know this is meant

to simulate the stresses
of a launch,

and when we talk about stress
in a launch,

we talk about g-forces.

So, where were we on that scale?

X-axis, 10 g's.

Flight test would be 13 g's.

And again, we'll through
that for X, Y, and Z axis.

So you test
all the different ways

that it could possibly
be vibrated

to make sure that you're ready

- for launch time.
- Yes.

Tell me about a little bit about

the rest of the testing
that we'll go through

before it heads down to Florida

and to end up in space.

So next we would do
a center of mass,

we'll do a magnetic field
measurement

- and a vacuum chamber test.
- Sounds great.

Now, if I were to ask you
to sum up just briefly

what you think
nuclear power's role will be

in space exploration,
what would you say?

Simply put, we would support
a manned mission to Mars.

Get guys there,
get them back again,

and that would be the ultimate
for nuclear power.

All right. Well Steve,
thank you very much.

This has been awesome.

George is having
a bunch of the folks

that we've been talking to
back in Inventionland

for a round table,

love to invite you to be there.

Fantastic.
Look forward to it, Greg.

All right. Well, see you back
in Inventionland.

[mellow music playing]

[mellow music playing]

- Hi everyone.
- Hey George.

Well, welcome to Inventionland.

- Thank you.
- We've been looking forward

to hosting this round table
discussion.

And this field
of nuclear technology

is just so exciting
to all of us.

I think you're in good hands
with Greg

as you guys get through
this meeting.

I'm gonna see all of you
a little later, okay?

[man] All right.
Thanks, George.

[George] Bye now.

So, as we get this started,
I'm just gonna dive right in.

Dr. Rita Baranwal,

how do you see nuclear energy

helping us with decarbonization?

So nuclear energy has always
been a clean energy resource,

so that's really important
to know right up front.

So as communities
start to consider

what they need to do
to decarbonize

and meet their goals
and objectives,

nuclear, if it already exists
in that community,

is the cheapest way
to decarbonize

the electricity sector.

Also we have to consider
deploying new nuclear

and then finally
it's really important

to consider
that the electricity market

is just one sector
that needs to be decarbonized.

If you look at
the transportation sector,

which is a very,
very large sector

that really needs
decarbonization,

nuclear reactors
and nuclear power

can also make a big, big impact.

Great. Now Dr. Kathy McCarthy,

working into that answer
to that question,

how do you see our...
The world's energy needs

- changing in the future?
- From a volume perspective,

you know,
we think about countries

like the Unites States

and we're developed

and we've got access

to electricity

but now let's talk about

we want everybody to have access

to broadband.

We need to have storage

to be able to store that data.

That storage takes a lot
of cooling, that takes energy.

So, it's really both
reducing carbon

- as well as increasing volume.
- Okay.

So those are some
very earthbound things

that we need to think about.
So Dr. Stephen Johnson,

how is nuclear propulsion
gonna work into our future

out in space?

One of our greatest challenges

is getting to Mars.

And nuclear thermal propulsion

can help us do that
by cutting down

the amount of time it takes
to get there.

For example,
if we were going to the moon,

the Apollo shots,
Apollo 12, 14, et cetera,

in the '69, '70 timeframe,

they took three days
to get to the moon

with their human payload
and equipment

to survive there.

When we were firing
the Pluto New Horizons' shot

in 2006, January 19th,

it took nine hours
to get to the moon from earth.

We need to be able to use
nuclear thermal propulsion

to get there
in a safe amount of time,

do our mission,
and get people back.

Okay. Great.
Now Dr. Corey McDaniel,

thank you for being here.

Are there policy changes
that can help us move forward

with all of this as we...
As we get into the future?

Well Greg, I'm somebody
of the opinion

that the free market
breeds innovation

and it's innovation

that is the culture
in the United States,

that our freedom allows us

to have the freedom to pursue
market-based solutions

that support
investments in technology

like fusion and space nuclear

and the advanced reactors
we see today.

Really over the last decade,

the marketplace has dictated

that investors like Bill Gates
and Warren Buffett

have invested
in advanced nuclear

because of the attributes
of that power,

clean, as Dr. Baranwal
mentioned,

it's also reliable
and it can be integrated

with other clean energy sources

and work with other
renewable energy sources

to reduce greenhouse gases

which is obviously something
that a lot of people

are concerned with today.

So, I think that the policies

that we have around innovation,

the policies we have
that support

our 17 national laboratories,

that really allows the US
to be competitive

and to out-innovate
other countries.

So I wanna thank you all
very much for being here

and thank all of you
for joining us

on our exploration
of nuclear energy.

For Tomorrow's World Today,
I'm Greg Constantino.

So, the big question is,
if you could go to Mars,

- would you?
- No.

- Yes.
- Absolutely.

- No?
- I'm the only honest one here.

No. [laughs]

- No?
- We're going without you.

Okay.

[dramatic music playing]