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<\/a><\/p>\nPhotos: James Duncan Davidson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Taylor Wilson<\/a>\u00a0graduated from high school in May. And\u00a0Popular Science\u00a0<\/em>has already dubbed him “The Boy who Played with Fusion<\/a>” and\u00a0Forbes<\/em>\u00a0has\u00a0<\/em>suggested that he may just be “The Bill Gates of Energy<\/a>.”<\/p>\n “I realized that the biggest problem we face — what all these other problems come down to — is energy,” says Wilson. “This is a talk about fission — about taking something old and bringing it into the 21st century.”<\/p>\n Wilson has invented Small Modular Fission Reactors. These reactors\u00a0are small, meaning that they can be built in factories and shipped wherever they need to go.\u00a0They are installed three meters underground — making them far safer from a counterterrorism standpoint than something aboveground. And these are\u00a0molten salt reactors<\/a>, which means that they have the potential to run on the\u00a0waste from old nuclear weapons — making the wide distribution of this technology a potential way to secure the material from weapon stockpiles.<\/p>\n As Wilson explains, one of the problems with traditional nuclear power plants is that they only run for 18 months before needing refueling. Small Modular Fission Reactors, on the other hand,\u00a0will run for about 30 years before they run out of juice. This means that they will be a closed system while they are in use, making them safer. And after the 30-year mark, these reactors can be sealed up and discarded.<\/p>\n “Everybody after Fukushima had to reasses the safety of nuclear,” says Wilson. “When I set out to design a reactor, I knew it had to be passive and intrisically safe.”<\/p>\nTaylor Wilson: Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor<\/span><\/a>Wilson first received attention at the age of 14, after building a nuclear fusion reactor he’d dreamed up in his parents\u2019 garage. He spoke at TED2012 about that experience, and he’s back this year at\u00a0TED2013 to talk about a new project.<\/p>\n