TerraPower Lands $650 Million in New Investment Funding
UK Hinkley Point C Gets £4.5 Billion in Private Loan
Asian Development Bank May Lift Ban On Nuclear Power Projects
ARC Clean Technology, Deep Atomic, MOU to Power AI Data Centers
INL Opens MARVEL Microreactor for Private Sector Test Projects
NRC Sets New Policies To Boost Development and Deployment Of Microreactors
DOE Extends Centrus’ Contract To Produce Crucial HALEU
TerraPower Lands $650 Million in New Investment Funding
TerraPower, which is developing a first-of-a-kind sodium cooled advanced 345 MW small modular reactor, announced this week it closed on $650 million from new and current investors. The money comes from NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA, and current investors, including TerraPower-founder Bill Gates and HD Hyundai, an South Korean industry leader in shipbuilding.
Last March TerraPower and Hyundai announced a partnership and strategic collaboration to scale up the global manufacturing supply chain for Natrium reactor components. The agreement combines HD Hyundai’s manufacturing expertise with TerraPower’s reactor technology. The objective is to build new supply chain capacity to enable large-scale production and global deployment of Natrium plants that feature a sodium-cooled fast reactor plus an integrated energy storage system.
In 2023 and 2024 NVentures made 26 investments, for a total of 40 so far, according to Crunchbase, mostly in the field of artificial intelligence. This is the first in a nuclear energy project. It is the largest single investment the firm has made so far. Many of the AI firms that received investments from NVentures use NVIDIA’s GPUs which are high powered, energy intensive users of electricity.
The capital raised will be used towards the construction of TerraPower’s first Natrium plant. The total cost of the plant will require several more rounds of funding from investors to cross the finish line. The firm is also using $1.6 billion from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstrations Program as part of a cost-shared commitment from the government.
TerraPower began non-nuclear construction on the Natrium demonstration project last year and anticipates regulatory approval for the nuclear reactor next year. The system combined a sodium-cooled fast reactor with gigawatt-scale energy storage, enabling it to boost output when demand peaks. This arrangement supports integration with intermittent carbon-free wind and solar energy.
“TerraPower was founded on the idea that innovation in nuclear science could make positive, global impacts. This round further establishes that our technologies are the solutions that industry is looking for,” said Chris Levesque, TerraPower President and CEO.
“As AI continues to transform industries, nuclear energy is going to become a more vital energy source to help power these capabilities,” said Mohamed “Sid” Siddeek, Corporate Vice President and Head of NVentures.
“TerraPower’s nuclear reactor technologies offer innovative, carbon-free solutions to meet global energy needs while minimizing environmental impact.”
UBS acted as the exclusive placement agent to TerraPower. TerraPower will continue to be a privately held company. Further terms of the funding were not disclosed.
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UK Hinkley Point C Gets £4.5 Billion in Private Loan
U.S. giant asset manager Apollo will supply the U.K.’s overdue Hinkley Point C nuclear power station with a £4.5 billion ($6 billion) financing package. According to CNBC is its one of the biggest private credit deals in Britain. The deal was reported last week by the Financial Times, London in a front-page headline above the fold. According to the Fitch rating service the loan will have a 7% interest rate.
In 2023 the UK government ejected a consortium of Chinese state owned enterprises who had at one time had offered to take a significant equity stake in the project which is composed of twin EDF 1,650 MW EPRs.
The gap in investment grade funding created by the government’s policy decision has created new opportunities for private capital. The Hinkley Point C project is expected to cost as much as $40 billion. The twin EPRs are the latest in a series which include two completed in China and one each in Finland and France. Two more are expected to be built in the UK at the Sizewell C site.
Apollo Global Management President Jim Zelter earlier this month reportedly said that he saw the opportunity to put $100 billion “in the ground” in Europe in the coming year.
Marc Scheipe, CEO at private markets management platform Allvue, told CNBC, “Apollo’s private credit deal with Hinkley Point is a major signal to the increasing maturity of the private credit industry. The market is growing increasingly competitive, underscoring its growing role in funding large-scale infrastructure, typically dominated by public markets.”
He added, “We expect more U.S. private credit firms to target European opportunities, particularly in sectors requiring long-duration capital, to diversify their portfolio and secure undervalued European assets that offer the potential for strong returns.”
In a press statement on 06/20/25 Apollo Partner Jamshid Ehsani said, “Apollo is pleased to provide this large-scale financing to EDF in support of its vital role in advancing European energy sovereignty and power infrastructure, including in the UK.”
Ehsani continued, “This landmark transaction highlights our deepening partnership with the French government and EDF and reaffirms our commitment to being a premier capital provider to leading European companies. This is the largest-ever capital funding transaction executed by EDF and the largest private credit transaction in the sterling market.”
Latham & Watkins, LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to Apollo while Apollo Capital Solutions Europe B.V. is providing structuring and arrangement services in connection with the transaction. BNP Paribas and Hogan Lovells, LLP acted as financial and legal advisors, respectively, to EDF.
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Asian Development Bank May Lifting Ban On Nuclear Power Projects
According to a report in the Financial Times, London, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia’s largest multilateral lender said it is considering lifting its long standing ban on investing in nuclear power projects.
The action by the ADB follows a decision by the board of the World Bank last week to remove its decades-long prohibition on funding nuclear energy as well as policy shifts on nuclear energy from critical shareholders Japan and Germany.
Priyantha Wijayatunga, senior director for energy at the ADB, told the newspaper, “As part of a mandatory review of the policy scheduled for this year, we are discussing with our shareholders the possibility of expanding engagement in nuclear energy.”
Pro-nuclear development interests told the Financial Times they are encouraged that the bank is reconsidering its policy especially in light of the progress Russia and China have made building nuclear reactors.
Russia’s Rosatom is building nuclear plants in Turkey, Bangladesh, China, India and Iran, while China National Nuclear Corporation is building reactors in Pakistan.
“The status quo of backroom nuclear deals only helps Russia and China,” said Todd Moss, executive-director at the Energy For Growth Hub, a think-tank that has advocated for western development banks to invest in nuclear energy.
Moss added that development banks could “work with governments to identify the best models for their needs and procure them competitively”.
He said the ADB was in a particularly important position because of its links with countries in south and south-east Asia that relied on coal power.
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ARC Clean Technology and Deep Atomic Sign MOU to Power AI Data Centers
ARC Clean Technology, a developer of advanced nuclear technology, and Deep Atomic focused on nuclear-powered infrastructure for high-density computing, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to jointly explore the deployment of ARC’s advanced small modular reactor (SMR), the ARC-100, to power next-generation data centers and AI infrastructure.
Deep Atomic, a Swiss-American company, provides project development services for hyperscale and edge data centers powered by SMRs. Their expertise provides a crucial link between SMR technology and data center developers by offering planning and technology integration capabilities, including novel balance-of-plant and cooling technologies.
The MOU outlines a framework for collaboration including site identification, feasibility assessments, and engagement with potential customers across North America. The companies plan to jointly evaluate sites where ARC-100 reactors can be deployed in close proximity to Deep Atomic’s hyperscale infrastructure projects.
This agreement reflects growing momentum for nuclear energy as a cornerstone of digital infrastructure planning, particularly as AI and high-performance computing workloads drive exponential increases in power demand.
“Our mission is to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear for 21st-century digital infrastructure,” said William Theron, CEO at Deep Atomic.
“By partnering with ARC, we can offer our customers a pathway to fully decarbonized, 24/7 energy that meets the performance, security, and sustainability needs of AI-era data centers.”
The ARC-100 is a 100 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor based on a design with over 30 years of proven operating experience. Its modular design, compact footprint, and ability to deliver both electricity and high-temperature heat offer unique advantages for co-location with industrial and compute-intensive customers.
It’s legacy in terms of design, fuel, and sodium cooling has a legacy based on the Integral Fast Reactor which operated at the Argonne West site in Idaho in the 1990s. (ARC 100 Technical Summary Document; PDF file)
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INL Opens MARVEL Microreactor for Private Sector Test Projects
Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA) Management & Operating Contractor of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) owned Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is seeking an Expression of Interest (EOI) from industry providers to suggest potential tests and experiments leveraging the Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) demonstration. This will consist of a two-step process starting with a feasibility assessment, then a physical implementation, subject to Congressional Appropriation.
The MARVEL will be an operational microreactor is expected to serve as a nuclear test bed to demonstrate microreactor operations and end-use applications.
A primary goal of the project is to provide a platform that can be leveraged by the private sector to mature novel nuclear technologies and demonstrate innovative new use cases for microreactors.
Additional information on MARVEL’s utilization plan can be found in: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2371820. In short, the MARVEL reactor can be used to the following non-exhaustive list of potential applications:
Demonstrating novel nuclear-generated electricity applications (e.g., nuclear-powered microgrids, or nuclear-powered data-centers)
Demonstrate novel nuclear heat applications (e.g., chemical processing, synfuel production, novel power conversion systems)
Requesting data access (e.g., analyses conducted, documentations, engineering drawings)
Operating the reactor in specific modes to validate models (e.g., conducting a specific transient to benchmark codes)
Deploy advanced instrumentation and control paradigm to nuclear reactors (e.g., semi-autonomous operations, far-field remote operations)
Demonstrate novel safeguards and security paradigms for nuclear technology (e.g., cyber-secure communications, novel safeguard techniques for microreactors)
The current MARVEL scope will consist of developing an 85kWth reactor producing more than 10 kWe of electricity in the first stage of operations. In the second stage, process heat (above 300°C) will be provided to end-users specifically for type 2 demonstrations from the list above. Startup of the reactor is expected in 2027.
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NRC Sets New Policies To Boost Development and Deployment Of Microreactors
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said in a press statement that three new policies that will help enable microreactors to be built, loaded with fuel and tested at factories before being shipped to operating sites.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided on three policy matters to enable new ways of deploying microreactors. These very small reactors could be built, loaded with fuel, and tested at factories before being shipped to operating sites, and would generate about one percent or less of the power of a current large reactor.
The Commission’s first decision is that a factory-fabricated microreactor loaded with fuel may be excluded from being “in operation” if it has features to prevent a nuclear chain reaction.
The second decision is that a microreactor with features to prevent a chain reaction may be loaded with fuel at a factory if it is done under an NRC license that allows possession of the fuel.
The third decision is that the NRC staff may apply regulations for nonpower reactors to authorize testing of a microreactor at a factory before it is shipped to an operating site.
The Commission also directed the staff to continue other microreactor-related activities, such as engaging with Department of Energy/Defense efforts to build and operate microreactors on DOE/DOD sites or as part of critical national security infrastructure. This engagement aims to identify and implement licensing process efficiencies, consistent with the ADVANCE Act and relevant executive orders, to streamline the transition of microreactor technology to the commercial sector.
The NRC staff’s integrated microreactor activities plan has additional details on the agency’s regulatory activities.
All three policies are designed to speed up the licensing of microreactor technologies.
Microreactors, which are under development in a number of countries, but have not been deployed anywhere, are very small reactors that would generate about 1% or less of the power of a current large reactor.
They are designed for transportability and well-suited for powering remote communities, mining sites, military bases and locations recovering from disasters. They can provide high-temperature heat for industrial processes, reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
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DOE Extends Centrus’ Contract To Produce Crucial HALEU
(NucNet) The US Department of Energy has extended Centrus Energy’s contract to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to June 2026 with additional options for continued production for up to eight additional years.
In 2019, the DOE awarded Centrus a contract to construct a cascade of advanced centrifuges to demonstrate HALEU production at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. In 2022, Centrus won a three-phase follow-on contract to bring the cascade into production and deliver HALEU for the DOE’s use.
Centrus completed Phase I of the contract in late 2023 by launching enrichment operations and demonstrating first-of-a-kind HALEU production with the delivery of 20 kg of HALEU in the form of UF6.
Phase II of the contract called for Centrus to produce an additional 900 kg of HALEU by June 2026. Phase III included three optional extension periods of three years each, for up to nine additional production years.
Centrus president and chief executive officer Amir Vexler said the company is delivering meaningful quantities of Haleu to catalyse a new generation of reactors, while laying the groundwork to establish a large-scale, US-owned uranium enrichment capability to meet the US’s commercial and national security requirements.
In October 2024, four companies – Centrus Energy, Urenco USA, Orano USA and General Matter – were awarded contracts to produce HALEU in the US.
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