Gener8

Hosted by Veriten

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Latest episode

May 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Gener8 dives deep into the world of nuclear, power, and industrial heat and aims to bring concise, thoughtful, and in-depth discussions biweekly with expert guests. Gener8 is hosted by Veriten Director of Nuclear and Power Strategy, Brett Rampal and its COO, Jeff Tillery.

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5 recent

May 18, 2026Episode 3340 min

Isaiah Taylor, Valar Atomics

We are pleased to share the next episode of Gener8, available now to our private Veri-Lens community. The field of nuclear technology developers appears to be attracting new participants almost daily; however, identifying newcomers that have made tangible progress has proven more difficult than many would like. That is, until recently. On the back of presidential orders targeting new reactor deployment and hundreds of millions of dollars in private interest, companies like Valar Atomics are making headlines and building hardware in pursuit of first-of-a-kind technology deployment, as well as longer-term commercial aspirations.Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Valar Atomics, joined Gener8 to discuss the line between hype and real progress as Valar participates in the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program and looks ahead. Nick Morris, Veriten’s new Managing Director, also joined the conversation, which ranged from reactors in C-17s to lawsuits against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and everything in between. Isaiah shared insights into the team that has helped Valar jump into the deep end of reactor development, what brought him personally to this journey, and how the company’s experimental and testing activities could translate into future success.As Valar rounds the final bend in a race with other pilot program participants to achieve the President’s goals ahead of July 4, 2026, Isaiah’s passion for the project was clearly evident. Veriten and the broader Gener8 audience should keep Valar and its peers on the radar in the coming months, weeks, and perhaps even days.

April 24, 2026Episode 3240 min

Kurt Terrani, Standard Nuclear

Interest in new nuclear energy generation is currently at unprecedented levels that has been unseen in the United States in decades, if not ever. Alongside this interest in generation, private and public interest in the nuclear energy supply chain is surging with billions of dollars in unlocked opportunities set to turbocharge industry, manufacturing, and services that have faced stagnation for most of our lifetimes. One of the most important but little understood aspects of the nuclear energy supply chain is the manufacturing of nuclear fuel, a manufacturing operation in the U.S. that has developed all domestic needs for decades from just three facilities to supply almost one in five Americans with their electricity needs. While significant attention both in the form of public and private investments has been focused on earlier portions of the nuclear fuel supply chain such as conversion and enrichment (refining processes that create useable feedstock material for manufacturing but have limited domestic commercial capacity), manufacturing nuclear fuel is becoming more and more a focus. Advanced reactor developers are looking to utilize new fuel forms and technologies, which have even more limited manufacturing capacity in the United States as compared to the capacity available and utilized by the existing fleet. Creating significant new fuel manufacturing capacity will be paramount to the deployment of new nuclear technologies. Standard Nuclear aims to become one of the primary suppliers of the TRISO nuclear fuel manufacturing segment. Kurt Terrani, current CEO of Standard Nuclear and a veteran of the U.S. National Lab and nuclear developer space, joined GENER8 to offer insights and perspectives into the challenges and opportunities facing Standard as well as what the future may hold. Kurt helped level set our conversation by explaining more exactly about what nuclear fuel is and how Standard and others manufacturing processes work The discussion also explored into how Kurt ended up at Standard, why an independent and technology-agnostic fuel manufacturer can play an important role in the future of the nuclear industry, as well as the role of increased interest by the federal government. Kurt also gave us a picture of what the next few years of activities could look like for Standard, and how the broader nuclear space will sink or swim based on the successes, failures, and progress made today.

March 6, 2025Episode 3147 min

Nick Touran, What Is Nuclear?

For episode 31 of Gener8, we encourage you to utilize our visual stream as we're excited to share a documentary film that hasn't been seen in decades but is now available to us all thanks to the efforts of this episode's guest, Dr. Nick Touran. Nick is the founder and main force behind the WhatIsNuclear.com website, the Manager of Digital Engineering at Terrapower, and a man on a mission to save and revive some of the history around many of the amazing activities that took at the beginning of the nuclear age. Veriten was honored to sponsor the digitization of one of these films and Nick discussed with us how he got caught up in such an activity, why he founded his website, and what he does at at Terrapower before we dove into the film for the first time together. The film tells a bit of the story around the Armour research reactor, America's first privately-owned nuclear reactor which went online in 1956 on the campus of an Illinois university for research purposes. Nick also shared some lessons we could take from the film that are applicable to today's nuclear deployment paradigm and also shared his ambitious around further digitization efforts he plans to undertake. For a link directly to the film Veriten sponsored the digitization of, please click here.

March 6, 2025Episode 3041 min

Trey Lauderdale, Atomic Canyon

Episode 30 of Gener8 dives into the role of AI in nuclear technology activities with a discussion featuring Trey Lauderdale, Founder and CEO of Atomic Canyon. Atomic Canyon is using AI to reduce documentation burdens at currently operating as well as future nuclear plants and is engaged in a first-of-a-kind demonstration project at Diablo Canyon Nuclear power station. Trey discussed a little of the philosophy of where he sees the role of the AI technology in high documentation and highly regulated industries and described how his experiences founding and running a company focused on process improvement in the healthcare field has taught him lessons for the nuclear and power space. Trey also shared some thoughts about the future and where nuclear AI discussions could go more broadly as well as for future nuclear technologies.

October 15, 2024Episode 2939 min

Abilene Christian University and Natura Resources

Episode 29 of Gener8 discusses an innovative project in Texas related to the deployment of a molten salt research reactor at the Abilene Christian University (ACU) on the heels of the recent issuance of a construction permit for the project. Dr. Rusty Towell, Director of NEXT lab and Professor of Engineering and Physics at ACU, Doug Robison, Founder and President of Natura Resources, and Andrew Harmon, VP of Operations and Business Development at Natura Resources joined us to explore the project and what it means for the future of Texas as well as advanced nuclear technology. Our conversation began with what drives the need for more research reactors and research activities for molten salt reactors (MSRs) as well as the broader nuclear industry. Rusty, Doug, and Andrew discussed a bit of the history of the ACU project, the consortium participating, some of the innovations included in this project, as well as what brought each of them to the project. The conversation then turned to the commercial opportunities for MSRs beyond the ACU project, what Natura hopes to achieve in this area, and how remaining challenges for commercial deployment could be overcome or could impact future activities. Deploying the first new research reactor at a United States university in decades is a very welcome development and the implications for the future of the nuclear industry in this country can only improve with deployments like this.