NRIC selects 13 Projects for the Nuclear Launch Pad program

DOE’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) selected 13 new projects for its Nuclear Energy Launch Pad initiative.

August 21, 2026

Apollo Atomics launches with $31M seed to shrink nuclear’s overlooked bottleneck

Nucleation's portfolio company, Apollo Atomics, emerged from stealth this week alongside an oversubscribed $31 million seed financing, with a thesis that targets a component most reactor developers leave alone: the steam generator.

Conventional steam generators are multi-story structures, hand-built on site, and they drive a substantial share of the size and cost of a nuclear plant. Apollo, an MIT spinoff founded by Assil Halimi and Drew Walker, has redesigned the component as a compact, factory-manufactured unit roughly the size of a person, threading coolant and water loops through a metal block laced with needle-thin channels for far more efficient heat transfer. The result is a steam system 20x smaller than conventional equivalents and an 80% reduction in overall plant size at the same power output.

Critically, Apollo pairs that innovation with proven pressurized water reactor technology, commercially available fuel, existing supply chains and familiar regulatory pathways. The company's fuel has achieved criticality at full power and it is now pursuing NRC commercial approval, drawing on more than fifteen years of MIT research and testing. Apollo is targeting deployment in under two years, against a conventional timeline of a decade or more, with three reactor sizes spanning 10 to 300 MW and commercial interest totaling 20 GW from data center builders, university campuses and industrial offtakers.

The round was led by FCVC, with participation from Nucleation Capital, Y Combinator, Telesoft Partners, Pelion VC, Alumni Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, Stanford University, the E14 Fund and others. Apollo's launch was covered in an exclusive by TechCrunch.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Advanced Nuclear Customers, Brilliant thinkers, Company Milestone, Data centers & Digital Infra, Energy abundance, Energy transition, Fission, Future of Energy, NEWS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Portfolio Venture, Private companies, US competitiveness, US technological leadership

August 16, 2026

Blue Energy and GE Vernova Hitachi advance gas-plus-nuclear project in Texas

Nucleation's portfolio company, Blue Energy, has signed an agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) that launches the next phase of their 2.5-gigawatt gas-plus-nuclear power plant in Victoria, Texas. The agreement advances engineering design, licensing and safety analysis for the project, ahead of a final investment decision expected in 2027.

The plant pairs two GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines — roughly 1 gigawatt, powering a nearby data center from 2030 — with up to five GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors adding another 1.5 gigawatts beginning in 2032.

Blue Energy's integrated approach to prefabrication, transportation and assembly, which the company calls the “Blue Way,” builds on the standardized, modular design of the BWRX-300, using off-site fabrication, innovative logistics and super-module assembly to improve schedule, cost and delivery predictability. CEO and co-founder Jake Jurewicz framed the goal as making nuclear “a financeable, repeatable product.”

The first BWRX-300 is currently under construction at Ontario Power Generation's Darlington site in Canada, with completion expected by the end of the decade, which will make it the first grid-scale SMR in the Western world.

Click the above image to see Jake Jurewicz, CEO and co-founder of Blue Energy (on right), and Jason Cooper, CEO of GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy discuss their newly signed agreement to launch the Victoria, Texas project. (Available through Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0XMBovy6O4)

Learn more with the joint Blue Energy and GE Vernova Press Release: Blue Energy, GE Vernova Hitachi Sign Agreement to Launch Next Phase of Texas Gas-Plus-Nuclear Project, Blue Energy, GE Vernova Hitachi Sign Agreement to Launch Next Phase of Texas Gas-Plus-Nuclear Project

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Advanced Nuclear Customers, Company Milestone, Data centers & Digital Infra, Energy abundance, Energy transition, Fission, Future of Energy, NEWS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear innovation, Portfolio Venture, Private companies, US competitiveness, US technological leadership

July 17, 2026

Constellation Invests in Blue Energy ()

Blue Energy received a strategic equity investment from Constellation Technology Ventures, the venture arm of Constellation, operator of the largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the USA.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Advanced Nuclear Customers, Brilliant thinkers, Company Milestone, Data centers & Digital Infra, Energy abundance, Energy transition, Fission, Future of Energy, NEWS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Portfolio Venture, US competitiveness, US technological leadership

July 14, 2026

~90% chance of a record-setting El Nino

The Strongest El Niño Ever

According to Dr. Zeke Hausfather, one of the world's leading climate scientists, based on the data we have so far and the analysis of that data by some 667 scientists evaluating global temperatures through some 14 different forecast models, not only is this year's El Niño likely to be the strongest ever recorded, it may even be the strongest by a truly "mind-blowing margins."

After all the scientists submit their models' estimates for what may happen during this year's El Niño event, the "multi-model" median stands at 3.6C, which is roughly 0.8C hotter than the prior world record of 2.75C. Previously, the largest jump up was only 0.5C. Thus, the models are, collectively, predicting weather outside of the bounds of anything previously ever observed with global temperatures. Which means that we are headed into entirely unknown territory as a planet, that even the scientists who have been watching the global temperature trends worsening for years and decade, have never seen in their lives.

What Dr. Hausfather finds remarkable is not just the magnitude of the projected heat level but also the trajectory of how quickly it is developing. What scientists are seeing in how 2026 global temperatures are progressing, as we enter the northern hemisphere's summer months, is that there is an explosive El Niño onset happening. As unusual as the present trajectory is towards El Niño intensity, in fact the 14 different models have unusually strong model prediction agreement. Given this, the models yield a ~91% chance of a record peak in the El Niño that make it highly likely to be the strongest El Niño ever observed.

This is all still a prediction but the patterns reported by the model are extremely disturbing and the signature of a climate pattern that is not good for humanity or the planet. We definitely need to be more organized around marshalling our response and preparing for a world with record high heat that impacts not just air temperature but also ocean warming. We can't respond fast enough to this threat and we are clearly going to miss the world's ambition to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. But, even with our abject failure to meet our 2030 goals, the good news is that we might be able to meet our 2050 goals, if we can continue our current commercialization progress for next-generation nuclear, that can compete and win against fossil fuels.

References:

The Climate Brink, The Strongest El Niño Ever, by Dr. Zeke Hausfather, July 13, 2026.

July 6, 2026

Advanced nuclear ventures met & exceeded America’s reactor criticality goals!

Advanced nuclear meets the challenge of bringing three or more reactors to criticality by July 4th!

July 4, 2026

Aalo Atomics achieves criticality at INL

Aalo Atomics became the fourth company to achieve criticality with their advanced, Gen IV microreactor by July 4th, under Executive Order 14301 propelling the advanced nuclear sector towards commercializatio.

June 30, 2026

Deployable Energy achieves criticality at INL

Deployable Energy became the third company to achieve criticality with their 1-MW Gen IV microreactor prior to July 4th, under the Executive Order directives propelling the sector towards commercializatio.

June 25, 2026

History in the Making in Idaho

Aalo Atomics has completed assembly of its Aalo-X Critical Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory, with fuel delivery imminent and final DOE approval pending, and expects to achieve criticality within weeks, ahead of the July 4 deadline this summer...

June 23, 2026

Witnessing Atomic History in the Making at the INL

If you've been focused for most of your career on seeing the nuclear industry modernize and introduce a multitude of improved products and services to expand the use of nuclear power around the world, then you'd absolutely choose to camp out in Idaho Falls for the next couple of weeks as nearly a dozen companies race towards achieving criticality with their reactors.

Which is why Rod Adams, Nucleation's managing partner for the last five years and host of Atomic Insights & The Atomic Show for just over thirty years, arrives in Idaho Falls this week to watch nuclear history being made.

Here are now a few pictures from his arrival and participation in the hosted tours being provided by the INL. Rod already has a pretty packed schedule but if you are going to be in Idaho Falls and want to connect with Rod, please use this form and we'll make sure you can reach Rod.