Can nuclear power plants be built more like products, and less like one-off megaprojects?
In this episode of Stranded, Marie Espitalier-Noël speaks with Kirsty Gogan, co-founder of TerraPraxis and managing partner at LucidCatalyst, about what it would take to make nuclear construction faster, more predictable and ultimately financeable. The conversation begins with a striking finding from the Nuclear Cost Drivers study: the enormous gap between successful nuclear programmes and recent high-cost Western projects cannot be explained by reactor technology alone. Design completion, experienced delivery organisations, construction sequencing and repetition matter just as much.
Marie and Kirsty explore whether small modular reactors genuinely solve this problem, or simply place smaller reactors inside conventional megaprojects. They discuss what nuclear could learn from automotive platforms, aircraft manufacturing and shipyards, and how open architectures could allow industrial customers to buy standardised energy systems rather than commission bespoke plants.
The episode also examines the commercial models emerging around advanced nuclear: hyperscaler demand, X-energy, Aalo Atomics, Blue Energy’s shipyard manufacturing and gas-to-nuclear strategy, and TerraPraxis’ work to repower coal plants while reusing sites, grid connections and local infrastructure. Finally, they compare the US financing ecosystem with Europe’s fragmented approach, and ask what institutions such as the EIB and other development banks would need to do to make advanced nuclear investable at scale.
Chapters
00:00 — Introduction
00:49 — Kirsty Gogan, TerraPraxis and LucidCatalyst
03:19 — Why nuclear construction costs diverge
08:45 — Lessons from Vogtle, Flamanville, Hinkley and Barakah
11:47 — Do small modular reactors solve the cost problem?
14:19 — Building nuclear plants as repeatable products
18:44 — Open architecture and industrial energy users
22:07 — Where investors are placing value
24:54 — Hyperscalers and the limits of demand signals
29:50 — Technical milestones versus scalable delivery
32:58 — Blue Energy’s shipyard and gas-to-nuclear model
36:37 — Repowering coal plants and reusing infrastructure
41:44 — The US ecosystem and Europe’s deployment gap
43:22 — A European financing instrument for nuclear
47:00 — How Kirsty’s thinking about nuclear changed
50:04 — What advanced nuclear could achieve by 2036
Resources
• ETI Nuclear Cost Drivers Project
• Open Architecture Nuclear Integration Framework
• TerraPraxis REPOWER
• Blue Energy
• LucidCatalyst
• TerraPraxis
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