How a third-generation Texas oilman transformed an organic farming company into a leading advanced nuclear startup at a small Christian college

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.”

A few months later, Natura Resources was born as a next-generation nuclear startup, aiming to build smaller reactors using new technologies for cooling and other functions. Robison took the defunct corporate shell of an organic farming company he’d started in the 1980s—Natura—and turned it into the startup, even if it’s technically over 40 years old. “It’s a transition from organic agriculture to advanced nuclear,” Robison told Fortune with a laugh, adding that they both still involve clean energy.

Since then, Natura has grown, as has its university alliance—more than 150 researchers from ACU, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

They plan to bring the first reactor, MSR-1, online in 2028 in........

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