Investors include Sam Altman-backed advanced reactor company Oklo
Swedish nuclear startup Blykalla has raised $50m (€42m) of fresh capital to accelerate its work on a small modular reactor (SMR) that could help power data centres and other big tech or industrial facilities.
The round was co-led by US advanced reactor company Oklo, Sweden’s Norrsken Launcher and Armada Investment AG, Blykalla said in a statement on 18 December. Investors also included hyperscalers – companies with massive data centres that support everything from big data to AI and streaming services.
Blykalla said the fundraising was a significant step towards meeting the urgent demand for clean, reliable power to accelerate the industrialisation and commercialisation of its advanced lead-cooled reactor, the Sealer.
The company said it is now financed to undertake the three next critical tracks toward deployment.
First is scaling the testing and validation programme at an advanced reactor testing site near an existing large-scale commercial nuclear power station in Oskarshamn, Sweden.
Then comes the design and engineering of the first nuclear units.
Thirdly, Blykalla wants to accelerate commercial and regulatory efforts to secure a site and license the first Sealer project.
The statement said that by aligning two of the fastest-moving reactor developers globally, Blykalla and Oklo, which is backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, are together shortening critical paths to deployment, reducing schedule risks and unlocking supply chain efficiencies.
Lead-cooled nuclear plants such as that being developed by Blykalla are not yet operating, but are being developed as next-generation, or Generation IV, reactors.
Blykalla is focused on two projects – the construction of an electric non-nuclear prototype test reactor at Oskarshamn and the development of a proposed flagship advanced reactor design demonstrator known as the Sealer-One.
The company will use the Sealer-One prototype to prepare for mass production of the 55-MW Sealer-55, which will be used for both industrial processes and electricity production. Due to their modular structure these SMRs can be produced in factories and shipped to their final locations.
In October, Blykalla signed a memorandum of understanding with Evroc and Studsvik to explore developing Sweden’s first nuclear-powered data centre at a Studsvik-run site south of Stockholm.
