Episode #13
40X Smaller Nuclear in 24 Months? Inside Apollo Atomics’ Abundance Bet | Assil Halimi (YC P26)
Nuclear power is undergoing a massive renaissance. While everyone is trying to reinvent nuclear from scratch with exotic fuels and unproven coolants, Apollo Atomics proved you only need to fix ONE 120-year-old component to make reactors factory-built and transportable. Case in point: three reactors, each on a truck, each for a different customer segment. The A-10 (10 MWe), the A-50 (50 MWe) and the A-300 (300 MWe). Ready to deploy.Apollo Atomics took the pressurized water reactor, the same technology running roughly 80% of the world's nuclear plants, and changed exactly one component: the steam generator. That single change shrinks the reactor 40x and turns what's normally a 10-year construction project into a factory-built machine deployable in under 24 months.In this episode of Deeptech Decoded, Nihal Kurth sits down with Assil Halimi, founder and CEO of Apollo Atomics (YC). Assil spent his PhD at MIT asking one question: what is the single design choice that unlocks the fastest, cheapest path to deploying nuclear power?Together, they walk through why nuclear is still the most energy-dense source available, why public safety data doesn't match public perception, how Apollo tests component reliability without waiting a decade, and why the biggest risk to a deep-tech company isn't the physics, it's scaling the team without breaking what works.Learn more about Assil:https://deeptech-decoded.com/guests/assil-halimiChapters:00:00 – Intro08:24 – Why nuclear is the densest energy source10:44 – The real safety data behind nuclear11:40 – Chernobyl vs. Fukushima vs. PWRs13:56 – Passive safety, built into the design18:16 – How a nuclear plant makes electricity24:47 – Building reactors in a factory, not on-site26:57 – Why plant size drives the cost29:29 – Changing one component, not the reactor34:11 – The four layers of cost reduction37:48 – Turning coal plants into nuclear plants38:13 – The biggest risk: component reliability41:37 – Testing reliability without a decade to spare46:18 – 300 megawatts on a single truck47:22 – Why customers pay a premium for reliability51:16 – Executive orders cutting NRC review time57:29 – The supply chain concentration risk1:04:10 – Decoupling power from cost1:07:47 – What could actually break Apollo Atomics1:15:15 – From solo founder to YC1:26:37 – The 10-15 year goal for nuclearWhere to find Assil:LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/aahalimi/X→ https://x.com/AssilHalimiWhere to find us:Substack → https://deeptechdecoded.substack.com/LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/deeptechdecoded Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5c2T63GUqlDwQO2RIYCxfY?si=17b199ed1a40496bApple Music → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/deeptech-decoded-frontier-builders-ai-product-taste/id1851406220
