Kirsty Gogan Gives Keynote Address at the International Energy Agency's Stakeholder Engagement Conference

From Mega Projects to Mass Manufacturing: A New Nuclear Paradigm

LucidCatalyst's Managing Partner Kirsty Gogan was honored to give the keynote address at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hashtag#StakeholderEngagement  Conference, sharing LucidCatalyst's and our partner non-profit organization Terra Praxis's vision for transforming nuclear deployment at scale. 

The Challenge

We are halfway through this critical decade... Around 30 countries have pledged to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 – a target that would require construction rates of 30 gigawatts each year, for 20 years, starting in 2030. 

And that’s not all – industrial energy users are signalling demand for hundreds of gigawatts of reliable clean energy to power their business-critical energy needs – starting in the 2030 timeframe – and many are concluding that nuclear energy would be the most practical option to substitute fossil fuels that currently supply the heat, power, and fuels that power their business-critical energy services.

However, to meet the scale of demand, we need to fundamentally transform how we develop and deploy nuclear projects. Meanwhile, we can't finance away the 2TWe of coal operating globally – nations need this energy.

Reality check: Replacing India's 2,630 MWe Anpara Coal Plant with solar+storage would require 245-381 km² and cost $16-22 billion with 38% curtailment.

The Solution: Products, Not Projects

We must leverage AI, and shift from slow, expensive mega projects to fast, repeatable manufacturing.

Our approach: Mass-manufactured "heat boxes" – containerized reactors built in factories, then deployed using kit-of-parts assembly. These can be:

• Sited within existing coal plant footprints

• Co-located with data centers and industrial facilities, like refineries

• Installed on barges to produce power and synthetic fuels

• Licensed once, then built many times

The Vision

If we execute this transformation, we can:

• Repower 2TWe of coal capacity

• Deliver refinery-scale hydrogen production

• Substitute 100M barrels of oil per day equivalent

This creates entirely new categories of emissions-free energy services that preserve jobs while powering industrial civilization. Heat boxes could be deployable wherever dense, reliable, clean energy is needed.

Watch here: https://lnkd.in/eBB-8TN2 

Scroll to position 08:59:27/12:33:19 to view Kirsty's address.