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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
April 2026
Latest News
NN Asks: What hurdles stand in the way of nuclear power’s global expansion?
Jake Jurewicz
Nuclear technology is mature. It provides firm power at scale with minimal externalities and has done so for decades. The core problem isn’t about the technology—it is how the plants are built. Nuclear construction has a well-documented history of cost and schedule overruns. Previous nuclear plants often spent more than twice what was first budgeted, making nuclear among the power technologies with the largest average cost overruns worldwide.
Recent projects illustrate how severe the problem can be. In South Carolina, the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion saw projected costs rise from roughly $10 billion to more than $25 billion before the project was abandoned in 2017, by which time more than $9 billion had already been spent and customers were stuck paying for a site they have yet to benefit from.
2022 ANS Annual Meeting
Chief Executive Officer
TAE Technologies
Michl Binderbauer is Chief Executive Officer of TAE Technologies and co-inventor of many of the company’s technological advances in fusion energy, power management and particle accelerators.
TAE was founded in 1998 to create a safe, sustainable source of nuclear energy, capable of providing energy abundance. Over the last two decades, Michl has evolved TAE into a fusion industry leader and has expanded the company’s technology portfolio to include power management solutions for grid storage and efficiency; EV powertrains and fast-charging; targeted cancer treatment and more.
In December 2025, TAE announced a landmark $6B USD merger with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. to make TAE one of the first publicly traded fusion companies. Michl became CEO of TAE in 2018 and holds over 100 U.S. and international technology patents. He has published multiple papers in the world’s leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Science, Physical Review Letters and Nature Communications, among others.
Michl has spearheaded numerous partnerships with development partners, including TAE’s partnership with Google to co-develop sophisticated algorithms to improve plasma performance through active feedback. He has been featured in the press, including Time magazine, The New York Times, Financial Times, Science and PBS NewsHour. Michl is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Physical Society. He is a recipient of UC Irvine’s prestigious Lauds & Laurels Award, and was an inaugural inductee into the UCI School of Physical Sciences’ Hall of Fame. He also serves on the school’s Industry Advisory Board and on the Dean’s Executive Cabinet.
Michl earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Irvine, under the guidance of fusion energy pioneer and TAE’s technology co-founder Dr. Norman Rostoker.
