Beyond Wind And Solar: LIS Technologies And The Nuclear Innovation Driving the Next Green Revolution

The importance of energy conservation has been instilled in countless Americans. However, as pollution increases and supplies of fossil fuels dwindle, the primary focus has moved away from mere conservation toward decarbonization. LIS Technologies and other nuclear-focused companies are stepping up to power the green revolution.

Renewable energies like solar and wind power have long been praised as fossil fuel alternatives. These types of energy have been successful in lowering carbon emissions. However, on their own, they're simply not enough to meet the surging demand for power.

What's the solution? To the United States Department of Energy, the answer seems to be a renewed focus on nuclear energy. In 2024, the DOE announced an initiative to establish a domestic pipeline for nuclear fuel and awarded contracts to several enrichment companies, including LIS Technologies.

LIS Technologies is a company focused on laser enrichment of uranium to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. It was co-founded by Dr. Jeff Eerkens —often called the "Father of Laser Enrichment"— and Christo Liebenberg, an experienced laser scientist who has worked in different laser enrichment programs.

Liebenberg is keenly aware of the growing global demand for power and why nuclear energy will be an essential part of the return to green energy.

"Right now, the U.S. is producing 100 gigawatts of electricity every year. We’ve got about 94 plants producing 100 gigawatts, or roughly 1 gigawatt per nuclear power plant," he says. "The projection is that by 2050, we need three to four times that amount of power. So in the next 25 years, we need 200-300 gigawatts of extra power." 

"That implies 200-300 more lightwater reactors (LWRs) over the next 25 years," he continues. "That’s about one plant every 60-90 days. Clearly, that won't happen. The solution is a combination of lightwater reactors, small modular reactors (SMRs) and micro modular reactors (MMRs), plus restarting shuttered nuclear power plants."

With that in mind, it's easy to see why the DOE is investing $3.4 billion in domestic uranium enrichment. "All these nuclear reactors require fuel, also known as enriched uranium. To increase nuclear power by 3-4X, the entire nuclear fuel supply chain needs to ramp up by about 10X if we want to become self-sufficient and not have to depend on foreign imports." Liebenberg says. "The demand is just huge right now, and it will continue to grow, especially with AI centers and data centers coming online in the years ahead."

Although nuclear power may not have been the prime focus of energy conservation in recent decades, LIS Technologies and other companies have been hard at work laying the groundwork for the next generation of nuclear. Today's nuclear power is cleaner, more compact, and more efficient than that of the past.

Nuclear power plants and larger, older reactors generally rely on low-enriched uranium (LEU) for fuel. In its natural state, uranium has about 0.7% U-235, the isotope needed to power nuclear reactors. LEU is uranium that's been enriched up to 5% U-235.

Now, nuclear technology companies are focusing on making smaller, more efficient reactors, and those reactors require a new kind of fuel: HALEU. HALEU stands for "high-assay low-enriched uranium" and contains up to 20% U-235.

This is where LIS Technologies is changing the industry. Enriching uranium is often highly resource-intensive, requiring dozens of stages and thousands of centrifuges in an enrichment plant to reach the requisite amount of U-235. The company's patented laser-enrichment technology can create usable LEU-enriched uranium in a single stage, and several dozen laser systems in an enrichment plant.

"Single-stage means you hit the uranium once with the laser, and it’s enriched all the way from natural to the LEU level," Liebenberg explains. "If you take that LEU and hit it again in a second stage, you can go all the way to HALEU."

This method of enrichment saves time and energy, making a potential shift to nuclear fuel and eventually nuclear power that is far more sustainable.

Today's modular nuclear reactors also have a much smaller footprint than traditional nuclear power plants. This means that although the U.S. will need to build hundreds of plants in a short timespan, the environmental impact of the construction itself will be far less than what many imagine.

As someone who has dedicated his life to the production of sustainable, large-scale nuclear energy, Christo Liebenberg is optimistic that this new age of nuclear power is exactly what the environment needs.

"We want to produce nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors that produces energy that’s clean — no carbon," he says. "We want to then get that online so we can combat global warming. There are all these reasons why there’s a huge resurrection of nuclear power."

Given the tight regulations around nuclear energy, it will likely be several years before widespread production becomes the norm. Until then, LIS Technologies will keep working to build a greener, healthier world.

Image Credit: LIS Technologies

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