Investment will be used partly for Precursor demonstration reactor in Italy
Newcleo, a European developer of advanced nuclear technologies, has announced the close of an $85m (€71m) financing round, bringing total funds raised in the past 12 months to over $125m.
The company said in a statement that the latest funding round brings total funds raised by the company since 2021 to over $755m.
The round included support from existing shareholders such as venture capital firms Kairos and Indaco Ventures, asset manager Azimut Investments, the CERN pension fund and heavy industrial components manufacturer Walter Tosto.
New industrial investors included steel mill manufacturer Danieli, cement and concrete manufacturer Cementir and valves manufacturer Orion Valves, through its investment vehicle Ecoline.
Technology company NextChem, part of the Italy-based engineering group Mairie, has become a newcleo shareholder following the establishment of Next-N, a joint venture focused on the development of engineering services and technologies for the conventional island and balance of plant for the global mall modular reactor market.
Newcleo chief executive officer Stefano Buono said the financing will support the continued deployment of the company’s R&D infrastructure in Europe, including the construction of Precursor, its non-nuclear reactor. It will also accelerate newcleo’s expansion in the US, which today “represents the most dynamic market for advanced reactor technologies”, Buono said. “The US is also home to key institutional, strategically aligned investors and market opportunities that we are eager to explore.”
Precursor is a non-nuclear reactor mockup rated at 10 MW thermal with power conversion of approximately 3 MW. Precursor is expected to be completed by the end of 2026 at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies’ Brasimone Research Centre in Italy.
Newcleo has said its long-term strategy is to develop and deploy advanced reactor technologies and facilities for multi-recycling of spent nuclear fuel.
The company’s engineering team is working on the basic design of its LFR-AS-30 reactor. Newcleo’s lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology is designed to operate with recycled nuclear fuel, offering the promise of greater sustainability and reduced waste in nuclear energy production.
LFR plants are not yet operating, but are being developed as next-generation, or Generation IV, reactors. Lead has a very high boiling temperature of 1,749°C which means the problem of coolant boiling is for all practical purposes eliminated. This brings with it important safety advantages that also result in design simplification and improved economic performance.
