The Iron Law Of FOAK

“Things that people assume are going to be easier are often way harder than they think.”

If there was one quote about #FOAK, this would probably be it. And it doesn’t matter what you are building - an #SMR or a FOAK chemical plant. The assumptions you make about some steps being easy always come back and kick your ass.

The quote comes from Kairos Power CEO Mike Laufer, in a podcast episode of The Green Blueprint. Mike and his team are currently building Hermes-2 - a 50 MW SMR demonstration unit in the USA. They have recently signed several off-take agreements, including one with Google, to build several commercial-scale SMRs of 75-MW each over the next decade.

I’m not a big believer in SMRs generating any commercial amounts of energy in the next 10 years. But nuclear projects are among the toughest to plan, manage and build. This is why I was listening intently, and here are some of the takeaways:

- Modularity reduces repeat risk, not FOAK risks (!)

- Manufacturing constraints, including those up the supply chain, must be design inputs

- Problems emerge in connecting different systems, not the core technology

The episode holds more insights, so if you are in nuclear, SMR, or just building a FOAK, hit the “Play” button!

The Green Blueprint is a great podcast on FOAKs in the USA. If you are interested in how European climate companies deal with FOAK, “valley of death” and scaling up, watch or listen to my podcast WattsUpWithStartups!