A nuclear energy startup that wants to build reactors a mile underground has emerged from stealth and announced a $4 million pre-seed funding round.
Deep Fission says that by using the natural conditions deep under the earth’s surface it can eliminate the need for the large pressure vessels and containment structures needed in traditional pressurized water reactor designs. It claims this will significantly reduce costs while enhancing safety, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
The company is targeting use cases including AI data centers.
Taking nuclear energy deep
Based in Berkeley, California, Deep Fission was founded last year by father-daughter team Elizabeth and Richard Muller.
Elizabeth Muller, the company’s CEO, said: "Climate change has accelerated the need for clean energy, and nuclear must be cheaper in order to compete with coal and natural gas.
“We’ve innovated beyond other reactor designs and engaged early and often with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make atomic energy a viable option to power AI, industrial applications, as well as remote communities. We cannot wait to share our findings with the world and do our part to help with the clean energy transition”.
Muller added that her company’s reactor uses conventional low-enriched uranium fuel and an existing supply chain, sidestepping a significant source of delay and concern for other advanced reactor designs.
It has raised the $4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by 8VC. The cash will be used to accelerate efforts in hiring, regulatory approval, and the commercialization of Deep Fission’s reactor technology.
"Cheap energy fuels our prosperity and all of our technology," said Joe Lonsdale, managing partner at 8VC. "With global demand escalating, we need more options. We invested in Deep Fission because they are engineering a way for nuclear power to be exceptionally safe, cost-effective, and reliable - and far enough underground that hopefully neither war nor regulators can turn it off!”
Deep Fission said it has already met “several important milestones”, including completing a conceptual design, submitting a regulatory engagement plan, a conceptual design white paper, and a conceptual design review meeting with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Can Cache Energy’s pellets store renewable power?
Nuclear power is an increasingly popular option for data center operators looking to negotiate the energy transition and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
Elsewhere, businesses are looking to get more out of renewable energy sources such as solar, and another startup says it has created pellets that can store energy and release it when needed.
Cache Energy’s lime-based pellets are capable of storing energy for what the company says is an indefinite period of time. When heated, they release water vapor, leaving behind calcium oxide. When moisture is reintroduced to the dried-up pellets using one of the company’s reactors, the reaction is reversed and heat of up to 550°C (1,022°F) is produced, a level the company claims is sufficient for most industrial processes and domestic heating requirements.
The pellets can be stored at room temperature in conventional silos, and transported by train or lorry. In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO and co-founder Arpit Dwivedi described the pellets as “coal without the consequences”.
“It’s a low-cost solid that is able to produce heat and can use some of the similar infrastructure built around fossil fuel,” Dwivedi said.
The company has raised $8 million to help fund the development of its products, and already has one pilot reactor out with a customer.
