Peter Barrett: Fund big reactors, not small ones
Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Courtesy of Playground Global
Investors and federal agencies have poured billions of dollars to develop small nuclear reactors, an effort Peter Barrett calls "unwarranted innovation."
What he's saying: The Playground Global general partner argues that the U.S. should instead be deploying large conventional reactors that have already gotten regulatory sign-off.
State of play: Nuclear energy is the single largest source of 24/7 zero-emissions electricity in the U.S.
Yes, but: Most investors and policymakers see little appetite for more large reactors, given the time and money it takes to bring them online.
The other side: In nuclear energy, bigger tends to be cheaper — especially in the face of stratospheric electricity demand from data centers.
This interview was edited for length.
What's been the big news in climate tech this month?
- "Getting Three Mile Island reopened. The stuff we have works magnificently well, and recommissioning existing reactors' is a great first step.
- I view SMRs as unwarranted innovation that give people the mindset that we need something else in order to scale. We simply don't.
- In the right regulatory environment, this is the cheapest way of building firm power. It's already the safest."
What would you add to the narrative?
- "We should be building a bunch of AP1000s. The engineering challenges have been largely solved. We know how to operate these things for 50-100 years.
- The worst thing about you can say about the U.S. nuclear fleet is it's heterogeneous: there are many different reactors. Economies of scale and regulatory streamlining stem from building a lot of the same one."
By contrast, what's going undernoticed?
- "Changing the way we create materials. Steel is 8-9% of emissions. I see huge opportunities in geology and geography to change the supply chain for everything from steel, lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt."
One tip for climate-focused founders or funders?
- "No amount of entrepreneurial enthusiasm will overcome thermodynamics."
Four fun things:
💼 First job: "Designing control systems for a coal mine."
👑 Proudest investment: "PsiQuantum. Somewhat hyperbolically, I've said it's the most important technology since fire."
🤦 Facepalm investment: "The early history of Playground, we did consumer investments. We wasted $100 million on drones, games, cell phones — stuff anyone could have invested in."
💡 In three-ish words, one change you'd make to climate-focused investing: "Beware of predatory delay. Some technologies like direct air capture or carbon sequestration are subject to predatory delay from oil and gas folks who would delay a transition to a carbon-free world."
