Nearly a decade ago, third-generation Texas oilman Doug Robison was plotting his retirement and the sale of his petroleum company when a trip to his children’s alma mater, Abilene Christian University, changed his career trajectory—at an atomic level.
He heard a brief talk from Rusty Towell, the director of the school’s Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing lab (NEXT), on the potential of next-generation, molten-salt nuclear reactors for affordable power to lift much of the world out of poverty. Robison was sold. “I met him in the back of the room and said, ‘What would you do if you’re fully funded?’ I asked him three times, and he wasn’t ready for the question.” Two weeks later, Towell offered Robison a rough plan. “I said, ‘You’re funded. Let’s go.”
Robison’s $3.2 million research donation kickstarted the effort and news spread. Then-U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry—and former Texas governor—sent a team to Abilene to study the research. In 2019, the Department of Energy offered fuel and salt in support of the project if they agreed to build a test reactor. ACU volunteered to host it.
“I held my hand up in the room and said, ‘I’ll fund it,’” Robison said. ACU President Phil Schubert took Robison aside, asking, “Do you have any idea how we’re going to do this?” Robison replied. “Phil, I don’t have a clue.”
