About

An institute for the New Nuclear era.

GNEI exists to advance the case for advanced nuclear energy — economically, strategically, and in principle — through serious research and direct engagement with the people who shape policy.

The Global New Energy Institute is a scientific think tank and advocacy organization founded in 2025 and headquartered in the United States, with active operations in Europe. We are a 501(c)(3) public charity (IRS EIN 39-4671762).

We believe the world is at the start of a New Nuclear era — one in which compact, decentralized, and dramatically safer reactors can deliver electricity at costs that legacy nuclear could not approach. The question is no longer whether the technology works. The question is whether the policy environment will allow it to compete on its merits.

Our mission

To engage policymakers, media, academics, and the wider public in informed discussion of advanced nuclear energy — and to remove the regulatory barriers that prevent safe, modern technologies from reaching the market.

What we believe

  1. Energy abundance is a moral good. Cheap, reliable energy is the foundation on which prosperity, opportunity, and human dignity are built. Energy poverty is poverty.
  2. Markets allocate capital better than mandates. The role of policy is to set fair rules and remove unjust barriers — not to pick winners or shield incumbents.
  3. Regulation should be proportional to risk. Modern reactor designs are categorically different from the systems regulation was written to govern. Treating them as if they were not is both unsafe and uneconomic.
  4. Energy security is national security. NATO and allied democracies cannot rely on adversarial regimes for the energy that powers civilian and military life.
  5. Independence requires not taking industry money. An institute that exists to critique an industry cannot accept that industry's financial support. Our donors are individuals and foundations who share our principles.

What we do

GNEI's work has four pillars: original research on the economics, safety, and policy of advanced nuclear; direct engagement with legislators, regulators, and senior officials in NATO and EU capitals; public education through writing, video, and convenings; and convening investors, insurers, innovators, and policymakers around shared problems.

What we don't do

We do not lobby for specific companies. We do not accept government funding. We do not accept funding from incumbent nuclear or fossil-fuel industries. We do not take positions on political questions outside our remit. These limits are deliberate — they are what make our analysis worth reading.

How we are funded

GNEI is supported by individual donors and private foundations who share our commitment to energy abundance and to the principle that good ideas should win on their merits. As a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, contributions to GNEI are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by U.S. law.

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Team

Our founders.

GNEI was founded by three principals whose careers span free-market policy institutions, energy-security research, and technology entrepreneurship across Europe and the United States.

Wolfgang Müller
President & Executive Director

Wolfgang Müller

Wolfgang is a German expert on energy transition with two decades of senior experience at leading free-market think tanks, where he developed and led research and outreach programs on energy and economic policy.

Earlier in his career he served as country director for a German foundation in South Africa and Zimbabwe, and conducted a three-year empirical study on economic reforms in India. His work increasingly centers on the global energy transition, including organizing high-level conferences on the subject.

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Shane Frith
Director

Shane Frith

Shane is a British/New Zealand entrepreneur and liberty proponent. He has worked with multiple think tanks in London and Brussels on energy security, and has advised senior politicians across many nations.

Between 2002 and 2004 he served as chairman of the International Young Democracy Union. He is involved in several technology start-ups and is a strong advocate for the role of technology and free markets in expanding human prosperity. He lives in London with his wife and son.

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Terry Easton
Chairman

Terry Easton

Terry is a serial entrepreneur and university professor who has served as a trustee on numerous nonprofit boards. He holds a BES in Engineering Science (electrical engineering and computer science) and an MS in the Management of High Technology, and has held U.S. top-secret classifications on military projects.

In 1970 he was a member of the NASA Apollo Program engineering management team. In 1977 he founded the United States' first Graduate Department of Telecommunications Management in San Francisco. He has co-founded several successful technology enterprises, several of which were acquired by major publicly traded companies, and is the author of books on technology, management, and economics.

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