On March 11, 2025, Flibe Energy president and chief technologist Kirk Sorensen offered testimony at the Colorado State Capitol in support of House Bill 25-1040, “Adding Nuclear Energy as a Clean Energy Resource.” The bill passed the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee by a vote of six in favor and three against, and moved on to the Senate floor with a favorable recommendation.

Sorensen was one of nearly a hundred people who addressed the committee during a long day of passionate testimony on both sides. In his remarks he explained how molten-salt reactor technology operates at high temperature and low pressure — making reactors smaller, simpler, and safer — and described Flibe Energy’s vision of factory-built reactors that could be deployed to communities for reliable, locally generated power, along with the medical materials such reactors can produce.

In response to questions from committee members, Sorensen discussed how the high pressure of conventional reactors drives much of the cost of building nuclear plants today, and why low-pressure molten-salt reactors could substantially reduce that capital cost. He also addressed the historical reasons thorium was passed over during the early decades of nuclear development, when decision-making was dominated by weapons applications.

A full recording of the proceeding is available from the committee’s website.