5 nuclear energy startups that Google, Amazon, Bill Gates, and Sam Altman are into

Altman was a lead investor in nuclear power company Oklo’s seed round in January 2015, according to PitchBook. Oklo says it’s “developing next-generation fission powerhouses to produce abundant, affordable, clean energy at a global scale.”

The California-based company has three project sites, and its Aurora powerhouse can produce 15 megawatts of electrical power (MWe). Oklo says it can scale up to 50 MWe and operate for ten years or longer before needing to be refueled.

Google signed “the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy” from small modular reactors (SMR) developed by California-based Kairos Power. The tech giant said it expects to bring the first SMR online by the end of the decade, and other reactors will be deployed through 2035. Five hundred megawatts (MW) of 24/7 carbon-free power will be made available to U.S. electricity grids through the deal.

Kairos Power is an engineering company that says it’s “focused on the delivery of a clean, affordable and safe energy solution through the integrated design, licensing and demonstration of advanced reactor technology.” The company wants its fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor, called the KP-FHR, to be cost competitive with natural gas in the U.S.’s electricity market.

The KP-FHR, a novel advanced reactor, “uses an efficient and flexible steam cycle to convert heat from fission into electricity and to complement renewable energy sources,” according to the company.

Amazon announced a series of nuclear power deals, including an investment in X-energy, an engineering company focused on nuclear reactors and fuel design. X-energy’s design for advanced nuclear reactors will be used for the tech giant’s project with Washington-based Energy Northwest, which will produce four advanced SMRs that are built, owned, and operated by the utilities consortium.

X-energy manufactures its proprietary TRISO-X fuel that powers its Generation IV high-temp gas cooled-based small modular nuclear reactor, Xe-100.

Gates founded and serves as chairman of the board of TerraPower, which is building its first nuclear power plant, Natrium, in Wyoming.

TerraPower is working on technology that can enable safe and affordable carbon-free energy. It is also developing a way to extract radioisotopes that can be used in cancer treatments.

Seaborg Technologies counted Gates as an investor in its $6 million seed funding round in April 2018, according to PitchBook.

The Copenhagen-based company has developed a compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR) — an alternative to conventional nuclear reactors. Seaborg’s reactor mixes fuel with a liquid salt coolant, while conventional reactors use solid fuel rods that are usually constantly cooled by water under high pressure. By mixing the fuel with the liquid salt, the company says its reactor “can always be cooled” and “cannot melt down or explode.”

The company has also developed floating power plants called Power Barges to deploy its CMSRs. The power plants can produce between 200MW and 800MW of electricity, according to the company.