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Quick survey: How do you feel about nuclear energy? If you’re like 84 percent of America, you believe that nuclear power should be “very important in the future.” That’s according to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.&utm_content=NR:%20Fall%20PO,%20093015&utm_campaign=American%27s%20Value%20Nuclear%20Energy%20for%20Clean%20Air,%20New%20Poll%20Shows" target="_blank">a recent phone survey conducted by the Nuclear Energy Institute, and it includes an interesting caveat: the 84 percent of people who responded favorably did so “once informed that nuclear energy produces nearly two-thirds of the nation’s low-carbon electricity.” In other words: people seem to like the idea of nuclear energy, once they know more about it.
The Transatomic logo, created by IDEO. IDEO / TransatomicMark Massie and Leslie Dewan knew this, when they set about forming their own nuclear energy company, Transatomic Power. The two MIT nuclear science graduates have sweeping ambitions—to bring back a nuclear reactor design first prototyped in the 1960s, and in doing so, change the landscape of clean energy in the 21st century—and a profound sense of optimism, which they want to share with the public. Right around the time they received funding from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Massie says, “I realized if we were going to be perceived seriously, we should probably have a logo and a visual language that doesn’t look like it was designed by a nuclear engineer.”They took their business to IDEO, a design studio heavyweight and, conveniently, a neighbor to Massie and Dewan, who still live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The issue, as outlined by IDEO design director Nick DuPey, has a lot to do with clarity. “When you think of the science behind nuclear energy, it can be very tricky,” he says. Massie agrees: “It’s much easier to start spouting out numbers and talking about the purely technical benefits of a technology. You need more than just the purely technical. You need the human face, a human voice.” IDEO / TransatomicTheir solution is a good old-fashioned website, logo, and brand identity book. The site is appealing, in a meticulously crafted, Squarespace kind of way. It even looks a bit like Warby Parker’s site—almost as though you could shop there. In total, the site bridges the history of nuclear power with what Transatomic is doing now. There’s a page dedicated to the science, “where you end up getting the specifics and the feeling of comfort in knowing these guys are experts,” DuPey says.The Techno-Optimism RevivalSee, Transatomic’s technology is complicated. Most nuclear energy technology is complicated, if you’re not a nuclear physicist, but Massie and Dewan’s approach might be especially so. Most of the industry uses light water reactors to generate energy in nuclear plants; but Transatomic uses molten salt reactors, which use nuclear waste dissolved into salt. The concept was first tested in the 1950s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Recently, a small group—including a group called Energy from Thorium—began campaigning to reintroduce the technology.This thread of retro influence carries into the logomark IDEO created, which plays off atomic diagrams but has an easygoing, bubble-letter vibe to it. DuPey says they had Paul Rand in mind from the beginning. After designing the now-iconic IBM logo, Rand created the icon for Westinghouse, the flagging electric company. Rand had a strong intuition for how to personify tech companies, without sacrificing trust and authority.“When I think of Rand I think of the techno-optimism of the 1950s and 1960s,” Massie says, “and I think that era is something we started out trying to recapture.” Massie isn’t just talking about Transamotic’s vintage-inspired molten salt reactors; he’s speaking broadly about our relationship to technology. “In the 1950s there was this fantastic mix of technical progress and optimism about the future that seems to have disappeared—from the nuclear industry, specifically. We wanted to capture that combination of humanity, mixing with the technical to improve on the present.”Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.
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