Nick Touran Joins Aalo as Senior Nuclear Advisor

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Nick Touran to Aalo Atomics as our new Senior Nuclear Advisor.

Nick brings nearly two decades of deep experience in advanced reactor design, with a particular focus on sodium-cooled reactors. He fell in love with sodium as a coolant back in school, and joined TerraPower while finishing his Ph.D.—where he went on to spend 16 years developing next-generation reactor technology.

Over time, Nick became increasingly fascinated by an overlooked corner of reactor history: moderated sodium systems. Inspired by Chauncey Starr’s landmark 1958 Atoms for Peace publication on Sodium Graphite Reactors (SGRs), Nick began a personal study of the Hallam SGR in Nebraska. His exploration turned into a full-fledged archival project, digitizing rare photos and film reels from this forgotten chapter of nuclear history.

What drew him in? The elegant promise of moderated sodium reactors: retaining many of sodium’s key benefits, like low pressure and excellent heat transfer, while avoiding the need for expensive HALEU or plutonium. It’s a pragmatic, deployable approach—especially well-suited to today’s commercial and geopolitical context.

Nick sees Aalo as the modern continuation of the same goals that Chauncey Starr laid out nearly 70 years ago: simple, scalable, high-uptime nuclear systems that can serve broad, practical needs.

“The Aalo effort is targeting the same things Chauncey Starr was, and for the same reasons,” Nick says. “I want to lend my knowledge, experiences, ideas, and critical eye to their effort to help propel them to success.”

At Aalo, Nick will advise on reactor design, fuel and materials science, and historical lessons from sodium systems around the world. His rare combination of hands-on engineering experience and historical fluency is a perfect fit as we accelerate toward demonstration and deployment.

Welcome aboard, Nick.