Vision
Nuclear is a necessary part of the solution to the world’s growing carbon-free energy needs.
Motivation
Each generation has encountered significant challenges, but responded with courage, determination and perseverance. We believe climate change is our generation's greatest challenge, requiring a unified response to innovate and shift away from the status quo. We believe in humanity’s capacity to embrace challenges and unite, find solutions to alleviate the most severe effects of climate change. We believe this immense, global challenge, will fundamentally reshape our current understanding and lead to a new era of discovery. We want to be actors of that change - engaged and passionate.
Energy
Energy is life, it’s what allows us to think, to move, and even to love. All the energy that we use, from food to oil, originated from a single moment of creation, the Big Bang. In turn, matter amalgamated itself into stars and planets, giving rise to life through an exquisite balance of water and light (electromagnetic energy to be precise). Every material object we use required energy, from mining to manufacturing to transportation. Our modern life is energy rich.
Humanity has experienced three major energy eras: first, the invention of fire; second, the harnessing of animal power for farming; and third, the industrial revolution with the discovery of fossil fuels. Now, we have to transition under pressure into a fourth era which is still technologically hazy. Traditionally, we have transitioned upward in power density: oil is more energy dense than coal which is more energy dense than wood. At harvest, one hour with a tractor has replaced a full day with a horse.
Currently, renewable power sources, such as wind and solar, have lower power density than fossil fuels and much lower density than nuclear. If we can solve the safety and long-lived waste problems of nuclear energy, then humanity can continue to climb up the ladder of energy density, increasing quality of life for the benefit of all.
Waste
Waste is natural byproduct of life. Without life there would be no waste, there would be no ecosystems, no human development. Waste should be embraced, but instead we turn away in an instinctive reflex of disgust. Yet, embracing waste has led to innovations, with the invention of the sewage system, or the production of soap - still the greatest lifesaving creation of mankind, from ashes of wood fire. Slimy, decomposing waste is what makes water lilies blossom.
Long-lived nuclear waste stands apart in the catalogue of human-created waste, due to its long-term hazardous nature, remaining dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. This immense ethical and practical challenge is our generational responsibility that we should not pass on to an untold future.
This is where Transmutex comes into play: mixing thorium with nuclear waste and transforming it into carbon-free energy. Thorium is a common metal considered a waste by-product from rare-earth mining and found in high concentrations in the coal ashes of power plants. We aim to transform it into the energy equivalent of soap through the magic of science. Additionally, thorium marries well with long-lived nuclear waste, transforming it into more "civilized" short-lived elements that will decay within 300 years - less time than it takes for CO2 to dissolve in the atmosphere, or for a plastic bottle or a cigarette butt to degrade in the ocean.
The mission of Transmutex is to produce scalable carbon-free energy by recycling existing nuclear waste. Our aim is to advance technology that not only mitigates the risks of nuclear waste but also leverages it as a resource for sustainable energy generation.
Mavericks
Twenty-five years ago, a team of maverick scientists from CERN, under the guidance of Prof. Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Laureate (1984), set out to revolutionize carbon-free energy production by combining the two widely unrelated technologies of nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. Although based on the nuclear science explorations by Ernest Lawrence (USA - Nobel Laureate 1939) and Nikolay Semyonov (Russia - Nobel Laureate 1956), the concept of directing a beam of protons onto mildly radioactive fuel to produce clean energy had never been tried before. The now legendary First Energy Amplifier Experiment (FEAT), conceived by Prof. Rubbia, successfully demonstrated the fantastic potential of this process for scalable carbon-free energy production.
Initially successful, this technology was set aside in preference for uranium-based nuclear systems, required for the production of atomic weapons. This shift not only prioritized military needs but also shaped the public's perception of nuclear technology, marked by the instability and devastating accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Consequently, the development of nuclear systems has historically been driven more by the demands of warfare than by the needs of sustainable energy futures.
Today, we recognize the opportunity to revive a civilian focused technology that offers a proliferation resistant alternative to traditional nuclear systems. As we face the critical task of mitigating climate change, it is imperative to revisit and advance this underutilized technology. Our role extends beyond innovation; we aim to inform and align policymakers and the public around this sustainable energy solution, helping to rectify past decisions and focus on a sustainable future.
It takes a lot of pressure to enable anything revolutionary to truly emerge. Today, as we face the staggering scale of the necessary change to our societies to mitigate climate change, trying something entirely new has become a necessity.
It's time to be mavericks.