Kirk Sorensen

Founder

Flibe Energy

Kirk Sorensen is a nuclear and aerospace engineer working on the development of a liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) as a source of energy and important materials. He has masters' degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee and in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Kirk founded Flibe Energy in 2011 and has led their efforts to develop the LFTR, recently completing a study for the Electric Power Research Institute and funded by a major utility. Kirk has been a public proponent of thorium molten-salt reactor technology since 2006, speaking across Europe and North America as well as in Asia and Australia. Previous to founding Flibe Energy, Kirk was chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama, during which time he also taught nuclear engineering as a visiting instructor at Tennessee Tech. From 2000 to 2010 he worked for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in advanced propulsion technology which included a two-year assignment to the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. His work has been featured in numerous magazines, books, television specials, radio and internet interviews. He lives in northern Alabama with his wife and four children.