Powered by idealism and pragmatism
When they first met as graduate students in 2012, Samuel Shaner SM ’14, PhD ’18 and Mathew Ellis PhD ’17 realized they shared a common passion. “Sam was one year ahead of me, and as my official buddy during orientation weekend, he took me to the MIT Energy Conference,” recalls Ellis. “That first night, we began sharing ideas about what we wanted to see happen in the nuclear industry.” Adds Shaner: “We were both really interested in the innovative side of the industry and doing something entrepreneurial with nuclear reactor development.” The connection sparked at the start of their acquaintance is now generating dividends. In June, Yellowstone Energy, the company launched by the duo in 2016, received $2.6 million from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This was one of just 10 awards distributed by a new ARPA-E program, Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration (MEITNER), which is intended to identify and develop...