korrents

What Isaiah Taylor thinks about nuclear power

@isaiah-taylor · 18 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founder and CEO of Valar Atomics, a nuclear-reactor company founded in 2023.

Isaiah Taylor did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

8 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Isaiah Taylor has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingSmall modular reactors are the right idea, but you only reach them by iterating on real hardware -- which is what everyone else missed.

    Their wordswhat was missing is that people did not realize that you're going to have to pursue that model through hardware iteration. And that's where really where Valor is unique is that yes, we believe in SMRs, we believe in reactors that are manufactured, but we also know that in order to get there, you have to do it through hardware iteration.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 3rd of 18 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our readingMost of the nuclear industry is a modelling and simulation business producing paper reactors, not a business that builds them.

    Their wordsif you look at the nuclear industry outside of Valor, it's mostly a modeling and simulation uh industry. Like when you think of a nuclear company, right, there's like nuclear companies out there that everyone knows the name of. And you kind of look under the cover. It's actually a modeling and simulation company, right? They produce um very very precise what we call paper reactors which have really good predictions of how a theoretical thing might behave.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 4th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our readingNuclear is empirically the safest form of energy -- safer even than solar, once you count the people who fall off roofs.

    Their wordsNuclear energy is the safest form of energy empirically. If you look at the amount of power generated versus the amount amount of deaths, um it's even safer than solar, which is very strange because how does someone die from solar? that actually most solar is installed on roofs and people sometimes die falling off of a roof installing solar and if you add those deaths up it is actually a higher death per energy than the totality of nuclear energy in the world.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 6th of 18 in this recording

    solarenergy

    Interesting

  7. Our readingNuclear safety should be pursued by reducing the consequence of an accident rather than its odds, because something unpredictable always happens.

    Their wordsThe alternative way that you can reduce risk is actually just reducing consequence, right? And we would argue that that's a much better way to reduce risk. Odds uh are stochastic, right? Even if you do an enormous amount of risk reduction on odds and you do all this engineering, something's still going to happen, right? like just something's going to come out of left field and you can't predict everything.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 7th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our readingValar will get to the point of turning on a new reactor every few minutes.

    Their wordsUm and we will get it down to minutes. Um this company will get will will get to the point where we have a new reactor turning on every few minutes.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 10th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our readingThe economics of nuclear are set by how fast and cheaply you can produce plants, not by fuel -- uranium is already cheap.

    Their wordsif you look at the um the economics of nuclear it really is driven by how quickly and cheaply can you produce plants right the uranium is very cheap right the the fuel is very cheap. The question is, can you produce plants quickly and cheaply?

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 11th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our readingMost nuclear companies will not have this solved by 2031, and many still will not by 2035, because they have the wrong mindset.

    Their wordsif you're looking at the nuclear space today, you don't expect people to have this problem solved in 2031. In fact, I would say even 2035, a lot of these companies are still not going to get there because they have the wrong mindset.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 13th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our readingNuclear's costs are largely fake -- an industry that has not built anything in forty years charging for what it can no longer do.

    Their wordsUm everywhere in nuclear is like this. There are uh totally fake costs from an industry that is just totally anemic and doesn't know how to build anything anymore.

    ↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 14th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting