Energy News Beat
ENB Pub Note: This interview with Maria on Fox this morning was crucial. I have contacted Lee Robinson to get an interview with him on the Energy News Beat podcast. He brings up some critical issues. We will keep you posted on the interview.
General Matter is a nuclear fuel startup focused on producing HALU, an advanced form of uranium needed for next-generation nuclear reactors.
- The U.S. currently lacks a domestic supply chain for this enriched uranium, leading to dependence on foreign suppliers like Russia and China.
- This poses a significant national security risk, as the U.S. may run out of enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants and military assets by the 2040s.
- General Matter aims to address this issue by stimulating domestic enrichment capabilities and reducing reliance on foreign adversaries.
- The U.S. government, across both the Trump and Biden administrations, has been supportive of efforts to grow a domestic nuclear fuel industry.
- However, China is rapidly expanding its own enrichment capabilities, posing a competitive threat that the U.S. must address.
This interview with Maria on Fox this morning was crucial. I have contacted Lee Robinson to get an interview with him on the Energy News Beat podcast. He brings up some critical issues. We will keep you posted on the interview.
General Matter is a nuclear fuel startup focused on… pic.twitter.com/23sKWnv0fg
— STUART TURLEY – Energy Podcast Host (@STUARTTURLEY16) April 8, 2025
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:00:00] America. General Matter is a nuclear fuel startup focused on producing HALU, an advanced form of uranium needed for next generation nuclear reactors. With no current U.S. supply chain, the company works to reduce dependence on foreign enrichment and support future energy infrastructure. Joining me right now is the founding member of General Matter, Lee Robinson. Lee, it’s great to have you this morning. Thanks so much for being here.
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:00:25] Thank you for having me, Maria.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:00:26] So you previously led energy and nuclear issues for the Defense Innovation Unit, an arm of the DOD, bringing commercial technology into the Defense Department. First, give us the backdrop here. Assess why it is important for the United States to be rekindling nuclear fuel production in the US.
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:00:49] Sure, so when I was over at the Defense Innovation Unit, what I was doing was I was looking for sources of electricity. The Defense Department buys the largest amount of electrons of any organization in the world. And what we had determined was the only way to get that at scale for the resilience that we need was going to be through nuclear sources. And I think that’s the same determination that just about every major demand uh… for electricity is coming to and the problem is that nuclear power that nuclear powered relies on enriched uranium and the majority of that enriched uranium comes from overseas suppliers it comes from foreign uh… state-owned entities where the majority that’s coming from russia and china which creates a significant issue for uh… ensuring that the prosperity in the united states when reliant on overseas suppliers for fueling our nuclear reactors
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:01:45] You know, I mean, we’re having a whole conversation about nuclear weapons this morning, given the fact that President Trump is going to be having direct talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman. And, you know, the conversation has been out of the administration is Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. So explain to our audience the difference of what you’re talking about when you’re talking about enriching uranium for a nuclear weapon, which is what Iran hopes to do, compared to what we’re talking about here in terms of enriching Uranium for the use of energy and firing up energy capacity. for the increasing demand for things like AI and data centers.
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:02:30] Sure, Maria. So enrichment is a refinement process, and it stops at certain levels. So if we look at the current grid today, 20% of all of our power is provided by light water reactors that rely on 5% enriched uranium. And then we look the future of American growth on the grid, it’s going to come from advanced reactors that will rely on 20% enriched uranium. General matter is stopping at exactly that point. We are focused on enriching for commercial power. Now what Iran is looking to do, and I think you’ll have several other members on the show that can probably speak to this at a little bit more depth than I can, but what Iran Iran is looking to is go well beyond that. That is not what the commercial industry is focused on. Commercial industry is focused on enriching uranium for commercial power
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:03:19] And this is very important given the status of growth in the country and the world. You talk about quantum computing and AI and the need for these data centers. You’ve highlighted that the U.S.’s nuclear fuel shortage is significant. Our current stockpile of enriched uranium will run out in the 2040s, right?
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:03:40] You’re absolutely right. We’re facing a series of escalating cliffs that are hitting right now. So today, our future growth is being curtailed because those advanced reactors don’t have a source of HALU, that 20% enriched fuel. So they’re not able to expand their development process and they’re not able to really deploy their first of a kind reactors because they don’t have a source of fuel. By the end of the decade we have our next escalating cliff which is our commercial power that 20 percent of the grid that all of America, America for the most part relies on, that commercial power is going to run into shortages because of the overseas reliance on those foreign adversaries. And then the last cliff. which is the most concerning to me, is by the beginning of the 2040s we will run out of our stockpile for our national security assets, our submarines and our aircraft carriers which rely on enriched uranium.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:04:39] And of course, you are in the midst of raising money and building this company. You don’t see a lot of this, you know, you don’t say a whole space of companies understanding where the needs are. I mean, you work for the Department of Defense in the Defense Innovation Unit, as you said, and this is a major national security risk. And one of the reasons that President Trump has said, we need all forms of energy. We’re in a moment of time when we need to ensure that America is rich in everything, including nuclear enrichment, isn’t that right?
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:05:16] I fully agree with you, Maria, and actually what we’ve been heartened by is that this is a bipartisan issue and our government partners, whether it’s a regulator in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or our partners over at the Department of Energy, they’ve been incredibly supportive on stimulating the growth of a domestic industry. And that has been from the beginnings of the Trump first administration through Biden administration and now with the enhanced support from the current Trump administration. So we do believe that the government is focused on this issue and what is likely to happen in the near term is the commercial market is going to be more focused on the issue. That’s why we’re leading the way here to try to stimulate enrichment in the U.S.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:06:04] And where is China on this? They’re competing with the United States at every turn.
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:06:12] Yes, so the unfortunate reality is that China is just standing up their capacity. If we looked five years ago, they had about 0% of the overall global market. But today, they’re approaching 15% of global market, and by the end of the decade they may be at 30% of market. So if we don’t start doing this in the US today, we are not going to be able to compete with China tomorrow.
Maria Bartiromo, Fox News Host [00:06:35] All right, Lee, we’ll be watching your work on this one. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
Lee Robinson, Founding Member General Matter [00:06:40] Thank you for having me.
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