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Nuclear engineering startup Transmutex has raised $23.2 million to produce energy and nuclear fuel from radioactive waste. 

Driving the news: Surging energy demand from data centers and AI development has reignited interest in the need to build more nuclear power plants.

How it works: Most nuclear reactors use uranium-235, an expensive isotope that can also make a nuclear weapon.

Transmutex says it's designed a particle accelerator and fuel system that can run on cheaper and safer metals such as thorium. 

The design converts nuclear waste into fresh reactor fuel while generating a modest amount of energy.

What they're saying: "Our primary purpose is not to produce electricity," CEO Franklin Servan-Schreiber tells Axios. 

"Our primary purpose is to destroy the long-lived waste that is plaguing the industry and to transform it into new fuel that will be used in regular reactors."

State of play: The Biden administration in November said it wants to triple nuclear energy production by 2050 to meet the country's climate goals and fulfill spiraling electricity demand.

Nuclear energy is the single largest source of zero-emissions energy in the U.S., producing about 20% of the country's electricity.

Yes, but: Some 88,000 tons of nuclear waste are sitting in storage across the U.S., with another 2,000 tons added every year. 

Efforts to recycle the fuel or develop a long-term storage site have collapsed in scandals, which in turn have prompted opposition to building new nuclear plants. 

Of note: The most prominent U.S. effort to develop a permanent waste repository, at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, saw costs spiral to $100 billion before congressional opposition all but killed the project. 

Even if the site were completed, it would be filled to capacity as soon as it opened — and that's not accounting for advanced nuclear energy projects like small modular reactors that are now in development.

💭 Our thought bubble: Particle accelerators and nuclear reactors sound ultra-expensive. But all Transmutex needs to do is convince government policymakers that its approach is cheap, safe, and workable. 

Driving the news: Union Square Ventures and Steel Atlas led the company's all-equity round, which closed this month.

At One Ventures, HCVC, AlleyCorp, House Of Ventures, Presight Capital, Verve Ventures, FONGIT and Tiny Supercomputer Investment joined.

At One partner Helen Lin and Steel Atlas partner Cameron Porter joined Transmutex's board. 

What's next: Transmutex has completed a digital twin simulation of its system. It's now in talks with government agencies in Europe and Asia to build the company's first 300 MW site, at an estimated cost of $2 billion to $3 billion.

The Geneva-based company plans to raise several hundred million dollars to begin construction in the next three years, Servan-Schreiber says. "Once we find a customer, we plan to do a Series B," he notes.

Exclusive: Transmutex raises $23M to recycle nuclear waste

Company's goal is to convert waste into fuel, energy

Illustration of a recycling bin with green radioactive drips around the top.

Nuclear power

Nuclear engineering startup Transmutex has raised $23.2 million to produce energy and nuclear fuel from radioactive waste. Driving the news: Surging energy demand from data centers and AI development has reignited interest in the need to build more nuclear power plants.

Exclusive: Transmutex raises $23M to recycle nuclear waste

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