Matt Loszak, Sc’12, contends nuclear energy is the most misunderstood technology of all time. He has skin in the game, of course, but he’s not wrong.
The co-founder and CEO of , which seeks to build smaller, mass-manufactured nuclear plants, shares how often people get wrongfully skittish when this type of energy is brought up due to misperceptions of the dangers of meltdowns similar to Chernobyl and Fukushima.
“Nuclear energy, which is as safe as solar and wind, has a perception problem, which likely started in the 1970s by oil and gas lobbyists who had their own interests at play,” Loszak says from his home in Austin, Texas.
Aalo Atomics, also based in Austin, is focused on making factory-made reactors instead of custom nuclear plants, with the goal of lowering technology costs and helping make it feasible to install plants in more locations.
“Small nuclear plants could be used for smaller utilities where a gigawatt-scale plant is just too big,” he says. “Also, in the same way an EV car has not just one battery but many batteries, it makes sense for some areas to have hundreds of smaller nuclear plants instead of just one huge plant. If a plant has to go down due to maintenance, there are other nuclear reactors still churning out power.”
He adds that an unrealized opportunity is pairing his nuclear plants with nearby data centres to offset the intense amount of energy and nearby water needed for data centres’ racks of servers.
“There has to be an easier way to power these centres, which are only going to need more energy thanks to AI,” Loszak says.
He can’t speak publicly on the letters-of-interest they have received so far from clients in both the United States and Canada, but a major update occurred in early May: The U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office approved the Documented Safety Analysis for the Aalo-X Critical Test Reactor, moving the company into its final pre-operations phase.
Canada has an increasing appetite for nuclear energy. In October 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney the investment of $2 billion to fund the production of four new nuclear reactors in Ontario poised to power 300,000 homes. Also, a 2025 Angus Reid found that support for nuclear among Canadians reached an all-time high of 63 per cent.
“I think there really is a renewed interest in nuclear,” Loszak says. “We are seeing a resurgence of the second atomic age.”
He waxes philosophical when he considers his North Star in his work leading Aalo Atomics.
“I like the idea of wanting humanity to expand, and the more energy we use, the more we can explore and expand our intelligence. If we master energy, we can really understand a lot more about the universe.” He pauses. “Actually, nuclear could be a great technology to deploy in space, both in terms of powering bases and in propulsion technology. You can go a lot faster with nuclear energy if you’re exploring the cosmos.”
