In short: News item — reported: agreement with the INL Foundation to advance its Molten Salt Nuclear Battery, a cyber-protected 20 MWt compact molten-salt microreactor; the collaboration funds the next phase (detailed engineering, safety and licensing, prototype manufacturing, first-fission testing, a repeatable deployment model), with the Foundation supporting early fundraising, INL access and its investor events.
MicroNuclear is a small private company designing a "nuclear battery" — not a battery you charge, but a very small nuclear reactor built in a factory, shipped to a site, run for years, then swapped out. Its design is a molten-salt reactor: the fuel is dissolved in, or cooled by, salt that has been heated until it is liquid. Molten salt runs at high temperature but at normal pressure, so there is no high-pressure water system to burst, and the hot salt is useful directly as industrial heat. "20 MWt" means 20 megawatts of heat — a fraction of a big power plant, sized for one military base, a remote town, or a factory.
The news is that the foundation connected to Idaho National Laboratory, the US government's main nuclear research lab, will help MicroNuclear raise its first money, get access to the lab, and pitch investors. The next steps — detailed engineering, licensing, building a prototype and the first test that starts a chain reaction ("first fission") — are still ahead. This is an early-stage, private company: there is no stock to buy, and the article reports the partnership without an investment view.
In short: Owns a stake: "In full disclosure, I'm an investor in one of its subsidiaries." A private MSR start-up whose senior executive, Richard McPherson, is Hay's guest. McPherson says rival MSR designs are inferior; Hay grants the bias but finds the "deep bench of nuclear experts," many from the U.S. Navy's nuclear propulsion program, encouraging ("probably right, at least for now") and hopes the pending patents are "rock solid." Hedged conviction: "I have no clue if I've bet on the right horse," so he will look for other ways to play MSRs.
MicroNuclear is a private start-up designing a molten salt reactor: a small nuclear reactor whose fuel is dissolved in hot liquid salt instead of packed into solid rods cooled by high-pressure water. The pitch is that such reactors run at normal pressure, are harder to melt down, and leave far less long-lived waste than today's big water-cooled plants. Built small and in a factory, they could supply power or industrial heat almost anywhere.
Hay owns a piece of one of its subsidiaries. He's enthusiastic about the technology and impressed that the team is full of former U.S. Navy nuclear engineers, but he's honest that betting on one early-stage company is a long shot: competitors are working on rival designs, and the value depends on its patents holding up. So his stance is "positive on the idea, humble about the horse," and he plans to look for other ways to own the theme. You can't buy this on a stock exchange; it's a private venture-style bet.
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