John Kutsch is the Executive Director for the Thorium Energy Alliance. He has spent 24 years developing materials, mechanisms, and products for industrial, energy, and medical clients. He is noted for leading the Technical Design of all the variations on the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), from 25, 250, 600, 80, 400 and all variations of each. He is also a Design Engineer who runs Whole World LLC, an engineering consultancy in Harvard, Illinois. Whole World specializes in energy engineering and utility integration with successful projects in Run-of-river hydroelectricity, Dye-activated solar cell development, organic Light Emitting Diode (LED) research, Waste-to-energy system design, Landfill Gas Collection and Energy Generation, Optimizing Ethanol Production, and Up-Rating of existing small scale generation facilities, with many project engineering services provided to the National Renewable Energy Lab. John provides his clients with world class innovation and engineering project management, CAD modeling and design services, Project Life Cycle Management, Fabrication, Materials Selection, Prototype Production, Casting, Forming, Rapid prototyping, Stress Analysis, and Quality Function Deployment.
Mr. Kutsch became a founding member of the Thorium Energy Alliance, a 501(c)3 organization, in 2006 after spending several years researching thorium applications and reactors for an industrial client. Within four years of the Thorium Energy Alliance founding, eight conferences with international participation had been organized. He has provided expert testimony and commentary in support of Uranium 233 preservation, Rare Earth Refining and Thorium Energy Research to the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Nuclear Energy. He has made scores of trips to Federal and State Legislatures promoting changes in federal policy regarding uses and storage of thorium and rare earth elements.
In March, 2023, John Kutsch helped to negotiate the terms of an historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Thorium Energy Alliance and the government of El Salvador to promote the “El Salvador Energy Bridge” plan. The MOU was signed by Daniel Alvarez, El Salvador’s director general of Energy, Hydrocarbons, and Mines (DGEHM), and John Kutsch, executive director of the Thorium Energy Alliance, at the Embassy of El Salvador in Washington, D.C., with Ambassador Milena Mayorga present to witness the event. This MOU will establish the framework for cooperation between Thorium Energy Alliance and the DGEHM to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to deploy thorium-powered reactors and thermal energy storage systems for El Salvador.