TRISO Fuel Company Raises $140M to Power Next-Gen Small Modular Reactors
An American startup focused on developing the type of nuclear fuel designed for future small modular and advanced reactors is newly empowered to raise production with $140 million from private equity investors.
Tennessee-based Standard Nuclear secured its Series A funding with investment led by venture capital firm Decisive Point and featuring new investors such as Chevron Technology Ventures, StepStone Group and Andreessen Horowitz, among others.
The $140 million financing will aid Standard Nuclear in expanding its annual production of tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel for advanced reactors. The company touts its version of TRISO fuel—known as high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU)—as the type of enriched uranium fuel essential for small modular reactors (SMR) which could be built over the next decade to power the grid and AI-enabled data centers.
“Standard Nuclear has successfully achieved numerous pivotal strategic and commercial objectives since our founding one year ago, leading to the remarkable occasion today as we begin producing HALEU TRISO,” Standard Nuclear CEO Kurt Terrani said in a statement. “This successful Series A raise ensures we have the capital required to fully execute on our expansion and growth strategy across various products and services based on our technical manufacturing capabilities and industry-leading fuel production expertise.”
Producing enough HALEU to power advanced reactor
Standard Nuclear says it will use the new financing to boost its TRISO production to more than two metric tons per year across several sites. Earlier this month, the company reported it received a shipment of HALEU feedstock at its Oak Ridge, Tennessee facility in December.
The volume of low-enriched uranium is enough to produce a full core load of advanced nuclear fuel to power the first reactor from developer Radiant. The nuclear fuel was allocated to Standard Nuclear and Radiant through an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
“Receipt of this shipment of HALEU feedstock is a transformative moment, firmly entrenching Standard Nuclear’s position at the forefront of the advanced nuclear fuel supply chain,” Standard Nuclear CEO Terrani added. “We are proud to be the first company authorized by the DOE to take this step toward full-scale TRISO fuel production, which is essential for bringing US-made, reliable, and advanced nuclear power to the nation.”
HALEU TRISO fuel theoretically can aid SMRs in producing a higher level of energy from smaller, less expensive reactors compared with conventional nuclear power plants. No SMRs have been built in the U.S. so far, but designs are under review by federal nuclear regulators and the Trump Administration has created several pilot programs to speed SMR adoption.
“The United States is entering a new nuclear era — driven by the clarity and focus of the Administration, a renewed industrial policy, the AI data center boom, and the recognition that clean, reliable and dispatchable power is essential to national security,” said Thomas Hendrix, general partner at Decisive Point and executive chairman of Standard Nuclear. “Standard Nuclear was founded with a focused mandate to secure and scale a domestic advanced nuclear fuel supply chain that the U.S. can rely on. With this financing, we are rapidly advancing to build the infrastructure needed to scale American nuclear.”
Why next-gen nuclear matters in era of AI and electrification
Nuclear fission power generation does not produce CO2 emissions at the point of use and also offers higher capacity-factor and baseload electricity compared with renewables and even natural gas-fired turbines. Nuclear plants are the most expensive power generation assets to build, however, and raise safety concerns due to the radioactive nature of the fuels involved.
Standard Nuclear emerged from its stealth development period last year with an announced $42 million in initial funding led by Decisive Point.
Prior to leading the company, CEO Terrani worked more than a decade as senior staff scientist and national technical director at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. He also was a senior leader at USNC involved in the buildout of that TRISO fuel manufacturing line.
The DOE says that more than 70 projects are underway nationwide to develop new nuclear designs such as SMRs, molten salt reactors and microreactors. SMR design firms include companies such as X-energy, TerraPower, NuScale Power, Natura Resources, GE Vernova-Hitachi Nuclear, Rolls-Royce SMR, Aalo Atomics and Kairos Power.
TRISO fuel particles are a combination kernel made up of uranium, carbon and oxygen. The tiny kernel is encapsulated by three layers of carbon and ceramic-based materials that prevent radioactivity and act as a type of built-in containment system.
About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
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Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.