Team
Jack Devanney
Jack Devanney is the principal engineer and architect of the ThorCon molten salt reactor power plant. Since 2011 he has pursued his idea of using shipyard construction technology to mass-produce safe, inexpensive power plants that can bring the benefits of electricity to all the world, with no CO2 emissions. He married the advanced nuclear technology developed and demonstrated by Oak Ridge Laboratory with his own engineering experiences with ships, power plants, and energy. He served on MIT’s faculty of Ocean Engineering for ten years. In his later career he designed and managed building and operating 440,000 ton ultra large crude carriers — the world’s largest oil tankers at the time. Devanney was responsible for specifications, financing, yard negotiations, supervision, and all major technical and commercial decisions. Devanney’s MIT education includes a BS and MS in naval architecture and a PhD in management science.
Ralph Moir
Ralph Moir is a physicist and engineer who has reviewed and improved the ThorCon reactor design during its development. Since leaving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories he continued research in magnetic and inertial fusion energy and in molten salt fission reactors. In 2004 together with Manhattan Project veteran Edward Teller he published a design for an underground thorium-fueled molten salt reactor. His Livermore work included research in plasma physics and on hybrid fusion-fission reactors. Dr Moir is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Nuclear Society. He holds BSc and PhD degrees in nuclear engineering from MIT.
Chris Uhlik
Chris Uhlik is an engineer with a broad experience in robotics, automotive assembly, radio communications, aircraft systems, data switching systems, and Internet services applications. He worked for Toyota Motor Company in Japan, Adept Technologies in robotics, ArrayComm in digital signal processing and cellular communications, and RedWave Networks on internet data. As Engineering Director at Google. he managed hundreds of engineers and was responsible for applications including Gmail, BookSearch, and StreetView. Chris has been studying climate change, energy systems, and the transformation of materials to decarbonize technical civilization. Since 2009 he has intensively studied nuclear power, especially molten salt reactor systems and the nuclear fuel cycle. Chris contributes to the design of ThorCon believing it is the most scalable, resource-efficient opportunity for humanity to advance its living standards while minimizing impact on the global environment. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1979–1990.
Lars Jorgensen
Lars Jorgensen is one of the lead architects of the ThorCon molten salt reactor. Lars designed the off-gas system and conducted analyses of neutronics and decay heat. Active in molten salt research since 2010, Lars is a lead technical contributor to the thorium molten salt reactor public forum. He works full-time on his passion: to give the developing world access to molten salt reactor technology which will fuel the dramatic build-out of electrical energy to meet their growing needs. Most recently from Texas Instruments, Jorgensen was Chief Technical Officer for the Digital Radio Product group. Prior to that he was Vice President of Engineering at Graychip, Inc., a semiconductor company specializing in dedicated signal processing. Previously he was a Principal Engineer at ESL/TRW. Throughout his extensive research and development career he has led engineers in pushing the technical envelope. His education includes a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and he holds various patents.
Robert Hargraves
Robert Hargraves participates in the ThorCon design and project. He is an author of several articles and presentations about the importance of safe, clean, affordable electric power to the future of humanity. His book, THORIUM: energy cheaper than coal, highlights the importance of an energy source that will undersell plentiful coal, which is being burned in ever larger quantities as the developing world seeks prosperity. Dr Hargraves taught energy policy courses at OSHER@Dartmouth as he learned about molten salt reactors. Previously he managed information technology as vice-president of Boston Scientific and senior consultant at Arthur D Little. Hargraves taught mathematics and computer science at Dartmouth College where he founded a software company. He earned an AB in mathematics and physics from Dartmouth College and a PhD in physics from Brown University.
David Devanney
David Devanney has a history of starting up new companies involved in a variety of areas including education, power generation, real estate development and marine transportation. His most successful venture was the founding and management of Tankship Transport which was a ship owning and operating company which managed one million deadweight tons of its own large oil tankers and another million tons of tankers for outside owners. At ThorCon, David’s focus is raising financing for the technology and finding a host country for the prototype power plant. He received a BA in philosophy from Loyola University.
Bob Effendi
Bob S. Effendi worked in government relations in Indonesian coal mining and oil and gas service industries. He served in Indonesian political parties and campaigns, where he learned how to accomplish things in government. As an environmental activist he become an independent consultant on renewable energy, then learned about thorium and molten salt reactors, authoring an Indonesian-language blog, Thorium as Energy Revolution. He is chief representative in Indonesia for ThorCon’s work in providing the country with safe, clean, reliable, inexpensive energy.
Dane Wilson
Dane Wilson has decades of experience in corrosion science and technology. He recently retired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he worked on materials and systems for use in molten fluoride salts, high temperature gaseous environments, and other pernicious working fluids of interest to energy and hydrogen production. He is an adjunct faculty member at Tennessee Wesleyan College, Knoxville, teaching strategic management, business ethics, labor relations, and operations management, highlighting business links to science and engineering. He earned a BSc in physics (solid state), MS in material science and engineering, PhD in metallurgy (corrosion and surface science), and MBA.
Niels Berger
Niels Berger is CFO of ThorCon International, Pte. Ltd. Niels has 25 years of experience managing companies in the shipping and insurance industries. Business and Accounting Degrees from University of Gothenburg.
Nathan Crum
Nathan Crum is an expert mechanical engineer with deep experience in computer aided design, finite element analysis, rapid prototyping, fabrication, and systems engineering. He worked at Wood’s Powr-Grip designing custom machinery for material handling applications. At General Plasma Inc. he designed thin film vacuum coating systems and deposition sources for the solar and semiconductor industries. At Sion Power Inc. he contributed to research and development of next generation rechargeable lithium metal batteries. At Roche Tissue Diagnostics he developed and researched various technologies for tissue diagnostics in anatomic pathology. Nathan is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Arizona, has a BS in mechanical engineering from Montana State University and is co-inventor on multiple patents.