By Donna Kemp Spangler, Kentucky Office of Energy Policy and GAIN present
“Shaping Our Advanced Energy Future” Webinar Series
August 18, 2022

Last year, Bill Gates was speaking at the Nuclear Energy Assembly’s virtual conference about his Company’s plans to build an advanced reactor in Wyoming.

Julian Colvin, a 22-year-old nuclear engineering student at North Carolina State University, was listening and posted a question in the chat: “I’m Julian. I go to NC State, and I wonder what a State like Kentucky could do to attract advanced nuclear projects?”

Colvin, a passionate advocate of nuclear energy, wasn’t really expecting a response. “I was sort of half hoping Bill Gates, or some other business tycoon, would see my message and offer some great advice. In the end, I think the response I got was much better,” he said.

That response came from another attendee, Christine King, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN).

King, a North Carolina State alum, responded in the chat, asking Colvin to contact GAIN, which is led by Idaho National Laboratory. “I told him to call me, and we would try to help,” King said. “After all, GAIN has been working with the states for several years. While Kentucky wasn’t one of our engagements at that time, I thought we could share how we do it and see what connections he could make. We were willing to help him get started. He really did the rest.”

Read the remainder of the article here.