Nuclear startup Last Energy raises $100M for its small nuclear reactor

After years in the wilderness, it’s a good time to start nuclear weapons.

“For the half decade that I’ve been telling people I’m doing nuclear, I’ve convinced them, ‘Hey, this is why nuclear is important,'” Bret Kugelmass, founder and CEO of Last Energy, told TechCrunch. “Now everyone just comes to us and says, ‘Yeah, of course nuclear is a big part of the solution.’ I’m like, well, I’m glad everyone’s caught up now. “

Last Energy is developing small reactors – nuclear power plants that can be mass-produced to keep costs down. The company’s reactors are designed to generate 20 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 15,000 homes.

It has power. Last Energy just closed a $100 million Series C led by Astera Institute with participation from AE Ventures, Galaxy Fund, Gigafund, JAM Fund, The Haskell Company, Ultranative, Woori Technology, and others.

The company joins a number of nuclear power startups that have raised funds in recent months, fueled by strong demand for data centers. Google-backed X-Energy has been upgraded $700 million last month, when Antares woke up $96 million two weeks ago. And in August, Aalo Atomics went up $100 million to build his prototype reactor.

What differentiates Last Energy from its competitors is its approach: the company is using an old reactor design developed by the government many years ago. The first design of a water press was developed NS Savannahthe world’s first nuclear powered submarine. The ship’s power plant was about one-tenth the size of Last Energy’s planned commercial capacity. Kugelmass said the company’s revised design should produce 20 megawatts of electricity.

The company is starting small, however. First, Last Energy is building a 5-megawatt pilot plant on a facility it leases from Texas A&M. The new funding will fully fund the project and help the company launch its first sales, Kugelmass said. Last Energy hopes to turn on the pilot plant next year, with a 20-megawatt commercial unit starting production in 2028.

The original Last Energy system was not designed to be used throughout its lifetime. Instead, Last Energy is encasing each core in 1,000 tons of steel. Kugelmass estimates that the metal will cost $1 million. “A lot of people think concrete is cheap,” he said. “But not when it’s nuclear concrete.”

The reactors will arrive at the facility fueled by six-year-old uranium. Apart from the electrical connection and control, there are no other entrances that break the metal wall. The heat from fission heats the metal, and the water flowing in the outside pipes harvests that heat to spin the steam generator.

When the reactor expires, Last Energy will leave it in place, with a metal chamber that acts as a waste bag, eliminating the need for special disposal.

The hope is that this approach, along with advances in manufacturing, will lower the cost of nuclear power. Kugelmass would not commit to price, instead pointing to other industries that have cut prices tenfold each.

“I don’t think nuclear is going to be bad because there’s always some additional costs you have in nuclear related to some special regulations, but that’s how you look at it,” he said. “We don’t think in ones and twos, we think in tens.”