{"id":4152,"date":"2025-12-16T13:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=4152"},"modified":"2025-12-16T13:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:24:17","slug":"nuclear-startup-last-energy-raises-100m-for-its-steel-encased-micro-reactor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=4152","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear startup Last Energy raises $100M for its steel-encased micro reactor"},"content":{"rendered":"


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After years in the wilderness, it\u2019s a good time to be a nuclear startup.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first half a decade that I was telling people I was doing nuclear, I had to convince them, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s why nuclear is important,\u2019\u201d Bret Kugelmass, founder and CEO of Last Energy, told TechCrunch. \u201cNow everyone just comes to us saying, \u2018Oh yeah, of course nuclear is a key part of the solution.\u2019 I\u2019m like, okay, great, I\u2019m glad everyone\u2019s caught up now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Energy is building small modular reactors \u2014 compact nuclear power plants that can be mass-manufactured to reduce costs. The company\u2019s reactors are designed to produce 20 megawatts of electricity, enough to power roughly 15,000 homes.<\/p>\n

It has momentum. Last Energy just closed a $100 million Series C led by the Astera Institute with participation from AE Ventures, Galaxy Fund, Gigafund, JAM Fund, The Haskell Company, Ultranative, Woori Technology, and others.<\/p>\n

The company joins a slew of nuclear startups that have raised funding in recent months, buoyed by data centers\u2019 insatiable power demands. Google-backed X-Energy raised $700 million<\/a> last month, while Antares raised $96 million<\/a> two weeks ago. And in August, Aalo Atomics raised $100 million<\/a> to build its prototype reactor.<\/p>\n

What sets Last Energy apart from competitors is its approach: the company is using an old reactor design developed by the government decades ago. The initial design for the pressurized water reactor was built for the NS Savannah<\/a>, the world\u2019s first nuclear-powered merchant ship. That ship\u2019s power plant was about one-tenth the size of Last Energy\u2019s planned commercial reactor. Kugelmass said the company\u2019s updated design should produce 20 megawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n

The company is starting smaller, though. First, Last Energy is building a 5-megawatt pilot reactor at a site it\u2019s leasing from Texas A&M. The new funding will fully fund the pilot project and help the company start delivering its first commercial products, Kugelmass said. Last Energy hopes to turn on the pilot reactor next year, with its 20-megawatt commercial-scale unit entering production in 2028.<\/p>\n

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Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Last Energy\u2019s startup\u2019s reactor isn\u2019t designed to be serviced during its lifetime. Instead, Last Energy is permanently encasing each core in 1,000 tons of steel. Kugelmass estimates the metal will cost around $1 million. \u201cMost people think concrete is cheaper,\u201d he said. \u201cBut not when it\u2019s nuclear-grade concrete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reactors will arrive on site fueled with six years\u2019 worth of uranium. Apart from electrical and control connections, there are no other penetrations that break the steel wall. Heat from the fission reactions warms the steel, and water flowing through pipes on the outside harvests that heat to spin a steam turbine.<\/p>\n

When the reactor\u2019s time is up, Last Energy will leave it on site, with the steel chamber serving as the waste cask, eliminating the need for separate disposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hope is that this approach, coupled with manufacturing advances, will drive down the price of nuclear power. Kugelmass wouldn\u2019t commit to a price, instead pointing to other industries that have halved prices for every tenfold increase in production.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be that good in nuclear because there are always some extra fixed costs that you have in nuclear regarding some of the special regulations, but that\u2019s the type of trend you can see,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t think in ones and twos, we think in tens of thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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