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Standard Nuclear emerged from stealth Wednesday with $42 million in funding to make advanced nuclear fuel.<\/p>\n
Except Standard Nuclear isn\u2019t an entirely new company. Rather, it\u2019s built on assets purchased at auction following the bankruptcy of the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) for $28 million. The new company\u2019s CEO, Kurt Terrani, served as vice president at USNC.<\/p>\n
The funding round was led by Decisive Point with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Crucible Capital, Fundomo, and Washington Harbour Partners.<\/p>\n
Standard Nuclear says it has $100 million in non-binding fuel sales for 2027, and that it is working with customers including Nano Nuclear Energy, which acquired other USNC assets in the bankruptcy auction, and Radiant Industries, another Decisive Point portfolio company. In a statement to TechCrunch, Standard Nuclear acknowledged the bankruptcy purchase, saying that it \u201caccelerated the launch\u201d of its timeline.<\/p>\n
USNC had been working to commercialize a type of nuclear fuel known as TRISO, which is a uranium fuel pellet coated in layers of carbon- and ceramic-based materials. The poppy seed-sized particles are considered to be more resistant to melting down, and they can be loaded into larger spheres or cylinders.<\/p>\n
TRISO is an old idea \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s been around since the 1950s \u2014\u00a0though the fuel isn\u2019t widely used today. That may change as several startups, including Google-backed Kairos<\/a> and Amazon-backed X-energy<\/a>, are planning to use TRISO in their reactors.<\/p>\n Though USNC was founded on a relatively well-known technology, the company\u2019s path was tumultuous.\u00a0<\/p>\n USNC was substantially funded by one investor, Richard Hollis Helms and his family, who over the years had plowed $100 million into the USNC along with $24.7 million in loans. For what was effectively a single-investor startup, the company had a sprawling business model, developing not just TRISO nuclear fuel, but also two different reactor designs, a nuclear space propulsion system, and a nuclear heating source for spacecraft.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not apparent where Helms\u2019s interest in next-generation nuclear came from. He began his career with the CIA as an Arabist in the Middle East. His wife was apparently a spy, too: \u201cWhile lying to their children and pretending to have routine office jobs, Richard and Teresa together pursued their international clandestine careers,\u201d his obituary<\/a> said; he died in May 2024. \u201cOnce certain that their son wouldn\u2019t run and tell everybody, they broke the news to their children by showing them the movie \u2018True Lies.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Helms retired from the CIA in the wake of 9\/11 \u201c[w]hen the agency did not call on his and his colleagues\u2019 profound expertise,\u201d his obituary said. He used his retirement to found two national security-related companies: Abraxis, which sold<\/a> for $124 million in 2010, and Ntrepid, which is still privately held.<\/p>\n In 2022, USNC started looking for investors to participate in a Series A, according to court filings<\/a>. But the company had been slow to bring in significant revenue, and when Helms died, the company\u2019s debts were mounting. Posts on Reddit<\/a> suggest the company wasn\u2019t making payroll at the time.<\/p>\n USNC declared bankruptcy in October 2024. Standard Nuclear, led at that point<\/a> by Decisive Point founder Thomas Hendrix, entered a stalking horse bid<\/a> for USNC\u2019s fuel-related assets for $28 million that same month. The sale was completed in February, including the property that today serves as Standard Nuclear\u2019s base of operations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n