Julia DeWahl of Antares on building nuclear reactors for the US military

1. Key Themes

The Nuclear Renaissance is Being Driven by Regulatory Reform and Political Will

The nuclear industry has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, driven by bipartisan political support and meaningful regulatory changes. Julia explains: "They changed the band-aid of the NRC and they said, you are no longer focused just on safety. Because what's the safest number of nuclear reactors? To license zero. So they expanded that, you know, you must consider the full environment, the full civilization" [00:17:23]. The Trump administration has added "even some more teeth and specificity. So right now they've changed it to, you have 18 months to get your answer from the NRC. License or no license" [00:17:50]. Most significantly, "Department of Energy pathways have been also unopened and unblocked for test reactors" [00:12:22], creating an alternative regulatory pathway that allows companies like Antares to test reactors alongside DOE and military regulators rather than going through the NRC initially. This represents a fundamental shift from decades of regulatory stagnation.

Premium Power Markets Enable Nuclear Economics

Antares has identified that nuclear must target "premium power" markets rather than compete on pure cost. Julia articulates this clearly: "You always want to try to get your beach head where it's like the easiest to achieve, right? And so we believe, I believe that, you know, premium power is where you need to go with nuclear" [00:06:43]. She identifies two key premium power markets: military applications "where they're not cost sensitive, where they already pay more for power" [00:07:00], and hyperscalers who "have carbon commitments. They want clean firm. They want 24, 7 power. They're actually willing to pay above market rates for that" [00:07:12]. This strategic insight explains why Antares is focusing on military microreactors producing hundreds of kilowatts rather than competing with solar on cost in commodity power markets.

Public Sentiment Has Shifted Dramatically on Nuclear

The public opinion transformation on nuclear has been remarkably swift. Julia notes: "The percentage point change we've seen in the last five to 10 years, is almost 20 points. I mean, it's like 17 points or something. So it's 60 plus percent of people support nuclear" [00:14:28]. She attributes this partly to generational change, observing that opposition often comes from outdated organizations: "the biggest organization that showed up against Diablo Canyon was called Mother's for Peace. And it's like, do you understand the irony of your name? This organization was that old that it was related to like the nuclear cold war, right?" [00:15:11]. The shift appears driven by youth and mirrors other rapid cultural transformations: "honestly, it reminds me of gay marriage. I mean, and if you look at the polling, the music came to the youth, right? It definitely comes from youth, for sure" [00:14:13].

2. Contrarian Perspectives

Nuclear Supply Chain Dependence is a Hidden Strategic Vulnerability

While everyone focuses on NRC regulation as the bottleneck, Julia reveals a more concerning issue: "the last 10 years or so has been like 1% of nuclear fuel use in the US was actually domestically mined. And now where are the last few or any mines in the US?" [00:26:39]. Even more striking: "we're still buying like almost 50% of our uranium from Russia and kind of exo-vehate states" [00:22:22]. This means the US nuclear fleet, which provides 18% of US electricity (far more than most people realize), depends heavily on adversarial nations for fuel. The focus on regulatory reform, while important, obscures this fundamental supply chain vulnerability that could be exploited geopolitically.

Solar's True Cost is Massively Understated

Julia challenges the solar maximalist position by highlighting hidden costs: "the cost of solar, at the panel level, is dirt cheap, right? And installing it, dirt cheap, but to actually integrate it, build the transmission, and then the added grid complexity where you need now these peaker gas plants to run when the clouds come. And that kind of thing, like, that actually has a ton of costs and it sort of hidden costs" [00:22:37]. She notes that hyperscalers committed to 24/7 clean power aren't just buying solar farms despite cheap panels "because actually to get true 100% 24-7 coverage, the battery or the excess buildout is massive. It is really expensive. It's basically on par with nuclear costs" [00:22:23]. This suggests the levelized cost comparisons that favor solar are fundamentally misleading.

Hard Tech is Not Actually a Tech Problem

Julia makes a surprising claim about nuclear development: "in a funny way, it's not even really a tech problem. Totally. You know, I mean, it's hard. It's hard to build these things, but it's not novel in that way" [00:30:26]. This explains why DARPA isn't involved - "it's actually not as technically risky as you might even think" [00:30:17]. The real challenges are regulatory navigation, supply chain development, customer education, and business model execution. This perspective suggests the "hard tech" framing may be misleading - these are execution-intensive businesses, not R&D moonshots. The technology largely exists; the challenge is building the organizational and industrial capacity to deploy it.

3. Companies Identified

General Matter

Description: Uranium enrichment company founded by Nolan (from Founder's Fund)

Why mentioned: Represents Silicon Valley DNA entering critical nuclear supply chain infrastructure. Julia describes them as "an uranium enrichment company, which is like real picks and shovels for a real hard, you know, Adam's business to do that" [00:27:30].

Quote: "there's a little bit of Silicon Valley DNA entering the space with General Matter, which has gotten Nolan's company out of Founder's Fund. So he's getting into the enrichment space" [00:27:23]

Brookfield Asset Management

Description: Trillion dollar asset management company entering nuclear power development

Why mentioned: Signals institutional capital recognizing nuclear opportunity. Recently announced plans to complete the abandoned VC Summer plant in South Carolina.

Quote: "There's a huge trillion dollar asset under management, company called Brookfield asset management. And they've actually just gotten in the game as well. In the last couple weeks...To take the VC summer plant that never got completed in South Carolina and actually finish it" [00:39:41]

Westinghouse

Description: Nuclear reactor manufacturer selected for $80 billion US government partnership

Why mentioned: Represents largest-ever commercial nuclear public-private partnership in US history, signaling government commitment to nuclear development.

Quote: "the US government now wants to spend $80 billion on nuclear development alongside Westinghouse. So they basically chose in the technology. And I think that's actually a good thing because you don't want to, you want to be able to build one thing and then repeatedly build it" [00:38:28]

4. People Identified

Jordan (Julia's Co-founder)

Description: Co-founder of Antares who originated the microreactor vision

Why mentioned: Had the key insight to target military as beachhead market for microreactors

Quote: "I met Jordan, who is my co-founder. And he's the one who actually had the vision for microactors for the military. And I just said, what a great beachhead, like again, premium power, great thesis to go to market with" [00:29:27]

Nolan (General Matter Founder)

Description: Founder of General Matter (uranium enrichment company) backed by Founder's Fund

Why mentioned: Exemplifies Silicon Valley talent entering critical nuclear infrastructure

Quote: "there's a little bit of Silicon Valley DNA entering the space with General Matter, which has gotten Nolan's company out of Founder's Fund. So he's getting into the enrichment space" [00:27:23]

5. Operating Insights

Customer Immersion Creates Product Breakthroughs

Julia emphasizes direct customer contact as transformative for product development. At OpenDoor, when they knew nothing about real estate: "We just went and sat outside a bagel shop for a Saturday and a Sunday morning and just bought people bagels and just asked them about their processes buying and selling at home and learned a ton" [00:02:00]. At Starlink, she "invited our first customers to come join us via Zoom for an all hands. And it was honestly the first time that many of the engineers had actually heard from the words of a customer themselves about the experience" [00:02:36]. This led to discovering that setup was painful - "multiple home depot trips. They didn't know if they had to cut down trees and their property" [00:02:56] - and resulted in "this cross-functional SWAT team that was dedicated to mounting options to be sold alongside the dish" [00:03:14]. The insight: seemingly trivial issues (bagel conversations, mounting poles) unlock major product improvements when you actually talk to users.

Confrontational Culture Drives Better Decisions

Julia highlights SpaceX's willingness to prioritize truth-seeking over politeness: "It's a very confrontational culture. And it's not afraid to say like, screw your next meeting. Like, we need to keep talking about this. And I love that" [00:30:51]. She emphasizes "the pausing to like probe super deeply, question things like really hash things out was a big take-o-ile and like, wow, that's really effective. At like getting to the right answer, at making a decision, at changing course when you need to" [00:31:24]. This contrasts sharply with typical startup advice about maintaining positive culture. The Five Whys framework becomes "that on steroids" [00:31:19] when you're willing to be truly confrontational about getting to truth.

Government as Customer Requires Patient Capital Strategy

Julia acknowledges government contracting challenges while remaining optimistic: "the pace of government is slow. So, you know, you've got to just kind of, you know, be able to keep pushing those timelines. Again, while not running out of money" [00:35:56]. The key is recognizing that "things like the government shutdown and like the pace of government is slow" [00:35:51] require building enough runway to survive bureaucratic delays. However, she notes that "people are actually kind of well aware that this cost plus model is not great. The question is like, well, what are the alternatives who's going to go do it?" [00:35:13]. The opportunity exists for those with sufficient capital patience.

6. Overlooked Insights

Graphite is a Critical Bottleneck Nobody Talks About

In a brief but revealing moment, Julia mentions: "This is what we are using for a moderator in our reactor. It has been designated a critical mineral. It's an important one" [00:00:52]. Later, almost as an aside: "The graphite that I brought here is actually from a Japanese company. No one's even processing that stuff in the US" [00:43:05]. This is remarkable - graphite, a seemingly mundane material, is both critical to reactor design AND entirely dependent on foreign (specifically Japanese) supply chains. While everyone focuses on uranium mining and enrichment, this completely overlooked material could be an even more significant bottleneck. If graphite is designated a "critical mineral" but has zero US processing capacity, this represents a strategic vulnerability hiding in plain sight. The casualness with which Julia mentions this suggests even industry participants may not fully appreciate its significance.

The Janus Program Represents a Structural Innovation in Defense Procurement

Julia briefly mentions: "There's a really interesting program right now that the army has put out called the Janus program. Are you familiar with the COTS program that SpaceX used to bring, to kind of develop their first reactor?" [00:34:05]. She explains it's "milestone-based. And you know, well, basically we'll cut you if you don't hit the milestone. And it's fixed contract" [00:34:28]. The army is using this to "fund up to kind of three to five companies to build their first prototype alongside us, kind of out of base. And then we will kind of choose a winner. And we want to build five to ten reactors if not more on basis" [00:34:41]. This is potentially transformative - the military creating COTS-style competition for nuclear reactors could become the template for breaking defense contractor oligopolies across multiple categories. Yet it received minimal attention in the conversation, suggesting even informed observers may not recognize its significance as a procurement innovation that could extend far beyond nuclear.