Congrats on Taking the Plunge

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

I just read today that Selenian Boondocks coblogger, Kirk Sorensen, just stepped down as Chief Nuclear Technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering to start his own company, Flibe Energy, focused on commercializing his LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) technology. Way to go Kirk!

I like the angle he’s taking. While this reactor is nominally a power-generator, he’s looking at the medical isotope and RTG plutonium production markets as additional niches that LFTRs can fill much better than the competitors. I think that’s pretty clever (in some ways like what we lucked into at Altius with Sticky Boom): focus first on markets that your competitors are at a distinct relative disadvantage, use that to get a toehold, and then jump back in to the real fray.

And I thought I had my work cut out for me starting an aerospace company! Good luck Kirk! Here’s to hoping that 20 years from now people look back on Boiling Water Reactors in the same way the look at using leaches for curing diseases in the Middle Ages. 🙂

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Jonathan Goff

President/CEO at Altius Space Machines
Jonathan Goff is a space technologist, inventor, and serial space entrepreneur who created the Selenian Boondocks blog. Jon was a co-founder of Masten Space Systems, and is the founder and CEO of Altius Space Machines, a space robotics startup in Broomfield, CO. His family includes his wife, Tiffany, and five boys: Jarom (deceased), Jonathan, James, Peter, and Andrew. Jon has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering (1999) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (2007) from Brigham Young University, and served an LDS proselytizing mission in Olongapo, Philippines from 2000-2002.
Jonathan Goff

About Jonathan Goff

Jonathan Goff is a space technologist, inventor, and serial space entrepreneur who created the Selenian Boondocks blog. Jon was a co-founder of Masten Space Systems, and is the founder and CEO of Altius Space Machines, a space robotics startup in Broomfield, CO. His family includes his wife, Tiffany, and five boys: Jarom (deceased), Jonathan, James, Peter, and Andrew. Jon has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering (1999) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (2007) from Brigham Young University, and served an LDS proselytizing mission in Olongapo, Philippines from 2000-2002.
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5 Responses to Congrats on Taking the Plunge

  1. gbaikie says:
    May 24, 2011 at 1:57 am

    That’s cool.
    I guess Kirk Sorensen will have less time on his hands in coming years.
    Congrats, Kirk!!

  2. Chris (Robotbeat) says:
    May 24, 2011 at 10:33 am

    Awesome! I may apply for a job… 🙂

  3. Jim Gagnon says:
    May 24, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    Thorium? Smart. The World will take a second look at this technology, in the wake of the Japanese triple meltdown. The Chinese already are.

  4. JohnHunt says:
    May 25, 2011 at 10:06 am

    > Here’s to hoping that 20 years from now people look back on Boiling Water Reactors in the same way the look at using leaches for curing diseases…

    Was it really necessary to offend the entire political profession?

  5. Steven Rappolee says:
    May 27, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    sounds exciting,
    hopefully Kirk might take the idea of merging Mr Landis’s idea of molten fluoride salt ISRU Lunar smelters powered by LFTR to NASA for a Grant to study it.The lunar molten salt ISRU would be the heat sink for the LFTR so call this combined power and heat co generation to get our selfs through the long lunar night! 🙂
    learning how to do one might assist in learning how to do the other.
    I have submitted the idea already to NASA but I do not have grant writing or the technical skills to bring the idea to life 🙂

    http://brc.gov/e-mails/March%2011/Synergy_steven%20rappolee.pdf

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