NuCube Energy Secures $13M to Advance Microreactor Technology for Industrial Heat and Power
Electronic technology entrepreneur Bill T. Gross’ new nuclear microreactor startup has secured $13 million of new funding to expand its operations.
NuCube Energy, which was co-founded by Gross and partners at the IdeaLab Studio in California less than three years ago, plans to deploy its modular microreactor technology to both electricity and industrial heat for sectors such as data centers and industrial manufacturing plants. Gross also founded IdeaLab close to 25 years ago.
NuCube, which is headquartered in Idaho Falls near the nuclear research center Idaho National Laboratory, also has multiple Arizona ties. Among its investors in the latest funding round include Arizona Nuclear Ventures, which is formed to position the Phoenix region as a national hub for advanced nuclear reactor development.
“NuCube is focused on technology reinvention: designing a novel, safer, simpler reactor that is elegant, licensable, and capable of delivering the high-temperature heat and reliable power modern industry demands,” Gross said in a statement. “Unlike many microreactor concepts focused primarily on remote electricity generation, NuCube’s platform is designed to address high-temperature industrial heat applications and achieve cost competitiveness on the broader grid.”
Other investors in this $13 million funding round include uranium researcher and fund manager Marin Katusa’s Emission Reduction Corp., as well as Rob and Jordan Rose Walton, leaders of the Arizona-based Rose Law Group Fund. Previous investors have included IdeaLab, Prime Movers Lab, E8, Halliburton Labs, ecosphere, and additional support from the Shell GameChanger program.
“This funding allows us to perform those critical tests, advance toward licensing, and move decisively toward demonstration,” said Dr. Cristian Rabiti, CEO of NuCube Energy. “Our focus is building a reactor platform that is not only safe and efficient, but also economically viable and scalable.”
NuCube enters a busy startup sector of companies vying to become the first to deploy operational small modular or microreactors in the U.S. This group includes X-energy, NuScale Power, TerraPower, Oklo, NANO Nuclear, Natura Resources and more.
Where NuCube purports to be unique is in its DeccaCell 3X technology, using solid state fission in modular cubes to achieve carbon-free nuclear energy. The reactor is being designed to provide combined heat and power at temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.
Bill Gross—who also founded Energy Vault, Heliogen and IdeaLab—co-founded NuCube with nuclear engineer Rabiti. NuCube leadership also includes nuclear industry veterans previously with companies such as Jacobs Engineering, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp., Parsons and X-energy.
The Biden and Trump administrations both have supported development of SMR and microreactors to provide baseload and carbon-free electricity. President Trump has issued an executive order pushing for acceleration of next-generation nuclear development, including pilot programs vying to achieve criticality by this coming July 4.
So far, however, no SMR reactors have been constructed or put into the operation either in the U.S. or Europe. Companies such as NuScale and X-energy have gained some design and permit approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and hope to complete work on first projects by the early 2030s.
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About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
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.