Relentless What if Russia stopped selling uranium to the US tomorrow | Scott Nolan, General Matter
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Mar 9, 2026 
Scott Nolan, co-founder and CEO of General Matter and former early SpaceX engineer, builds U.S. uranium enrichment to power current and advanced reactors. He explores risks if Russian enriched uranium stops, the 2028 import ban, HALU fuel shortages for advanced designs, history of global enrichment, why the U.S. outsourced capacity, and how to rapidly scale domestic enrichment.
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Mix Large Reactors With SMRs To Move The Needle Fast
- To scale grid power quickly deploy a mix of one-gigawatt class reactors plus SMRs and microreactors.
- Reserve capital for AP1000 deployments now and for licensing-stage advanced reactors later.
Why General Matter Was Founded
- General Matter started after Founders Fund could find no U.S. company solving enrichment for HALU, so they created one in 2024.
- Scott searched 2023 thoroughly across mining, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication before incorporating.
Dollars Per SWU Is The Core Nuclear Cost Metric
- Cost of enrichment is best measured as dollars per SWU (separative work unit); lowering $/SWU directly reduces nuclear fuel and power costs.
- General Matter targets facility, tech, EPC and siting optimizations to cut $/SWU.