Key Takeaways

  • Apollo Atomics secured $31 million in total funding, including a $26 million seed round and $5 million in debt, led by FCVC.
  • The company redesigns the steam generator, the largest component in a nuclear plant, shrinking it to roughly the size of a person instead of several stories tall.
  • The compact design enables a reactor about 40 times smaller than conventional designs, with production costs the company says are four to five times lower.
  • The reactor and steam generator are built in factories rather than on-site, targeting under 24 months to construct a 300-megawatt plant.
  • CEO Assil Halimi said the company aims to generate electricity at 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, undercutting natural gas, with commercial deployment targeted for 2028.

Apollo Atomics Raises $31 Million for Compact Reactor Design

Apollo Atomics has secured $31 million in total funding, combining a $26 million seed round with $5 million in debt. FCVC led the round, with participation from Telesoft Partners, Y Combinator, Alumni Ventures, Robinhood Ventures, Nucleation Capital, Pelion VC, Duke Capital Partners, New Era Ventures, Orange Collective, Stanford University, and E14 Fund.

Shrinking the Steam Generator

Rather than designing an entirely new reactor, Apollo Atomics redesigned the steam generator, the largest component in a nuclear power plant. The company’s compact version is roughly the size of a person rather than several stories tall, which it says enables a reactor about 40 times smaller than conventional designs and cuts production costs four to five times.

“We want to beat natural gas,” said Assil Halimi, CEO of Apollo Atomics, pointing to a target generation cost of 3 cents per kilowatt-hour built around the company’s redesigned steam generator.

Apollo Atomics Targets Factory-Built Construction

Apollo Atomics builds both the reactor and steam generator in factories rather than assembling them on-site, an approach the company says can bring construction of a 300-megawatt plant in under 24 months. The company has already built a 40-kilowatt demonstration reactor at MIT and plans three commercial reactor sizes ranging from 10 to 300 megawatts-electric.

Path to Commercial Deployment

Apollo Atomics is targeting commercial deployment of its factory-built reactors by 2028. The funding adds to a wave of venture investment in small modular reactor developers as utilities and data center operators look for faster, lower-cost paths to new nuclear generating capacity.