Thursday, March 17, 2011

Intellectual Ventures Defends TerraPower

Bellevue-based Intellectual Ventures, the patent and investment firm of Nathan Myhrvold, said Wednesday in a blog post that--despite the growing nuclear crisis in Japan--comparing its investments in TerraPower, the firm's nuclear technology firm to the reactor in Fukishima, is like "comparing a Ford Model T with a Volvo S80". Intellectual Ventures said it was posting a reponse due to "inquiries" on its technology which have been spurred by the incidents in Japan. Intellectual Ventures said that its traveling wave technology at TerraPower is "unlike any design built today", that the Japanese reactors were "designed in the 1960's" and that its design would avoid the spent fuel pools and coling systems issues being seen in Japan. The statements came as the nuclear power industry has come under fire from the public, panicked at what looks to be the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. IV recently invested $35M in TerraPower.