Leslie Dewan Innovators under 35

Leslie Dewan | Innovators Under 35 MIT Technology Review The reactor also makes more efficient use of the energy in nuclear fuel. It can consume about one ton of nuclear waste a year, leaving just four kilograms behind. What if we could build a nuclear reactor that costs half as much, consumes nuclear waste, and will never melt down? The nuclear power industry has a reputation for resisting innovative changes. ButLeslie Dewan and a colleague have dared to invent a new type of nuclear reactor. “We were feeling on top of the world. We just passed our qualifying exams for our PhDs,” she says. “We thought, ‘We’re the smartest we’ve been in our lives. We can do anything. Let’s change the world with nuclear.’” Two years later, she’d designed a reactor that solves the main problems facing nuclear power. To commercialize it, she’d cofounded a startup, Transatomic Power.http://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2013/pioneer/leslie-dewan/