By Valerie Gardner, Managing Partner
September 18, 2026
As the woman founder of Nucleation Capital, the first-ever venture fund to be overtly focused on investing into next generation nuclear, I know something about firsts.
Which is why I am so excited to see that Dr. Rachel Slaybaugh and Tori Shivanandan—two very talented women working in nuclear energy and firsts in their own rights—are converging on the Main Stage at the Jacob Javits Center to talk about nuclear's role solving climate during the upcoming New York Climate Week.
It has taken quite a long time to get to this point but this is—from a climate action perspective—an historic first both because climate used to not be willing to include nuclear energy and because those discussing it are both women! I will be there in the audience to witness, applaud and document for those who aren't there watching this pivotal moment.
Dr. Rachel Slaybaugh left a respected and tenured faculty position at UC Berkeley along with appointments at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and ARPA-e—where she had been successfully inspiring and guiding nuclear engineering students towards entrepreneurship—to follow her dream of becoming a venture investor as a General Partner with DCVC. Tori Shivanandan, now President and COO of Radiant Nuclear, has demonstrated the talent, wisdom and experience to find herself leading Radiant Nuclear in partnership with Doug Bernauer, the founder, which is one of the most accomplished of the advanced nuclear ventures vying for primacy in the next era of energy. DCVC has been an investor into Radiant Nuclear almost as long as Nucleation Capital has been. But Rachel sits on the Radiant board, so the two have been working together closely since 2022.
Their session, hosted by The Nest Campus, is titled "The era of new nuclear energy expansion" and it will occur on Wednesday September 23rd in the Javitz Center starting at 2:05 pm. Their conversation about nuclear's future—versions of which I have been having with investors for most of the last eight years—will last less than 30 minutes. Far too little time for such a critical conversation. But I suspect that the impact on the thousands of climate-concerned attendees at the Javitz Center, seeing these two brilliant women discussing how important nuclear is for humanity's and our planet's future, will be transformational.
Women investors, philanthropists and climate activists have long had the lowest level of support for nuclear power, despite having so many women having historically played or currently playing a role in the development of nuclear power. Across the 100+ investors in Nucleation Capital's Fund I, only 20% are women. This despite the fact that women disproportionately comprise those who care the most about protecting the environment and our future for our children from the ravages of climate change on all species and ecosystems.
But I get it. There are real, psychological obstacles to embracing the miracle of fission—a natural phenomena—and making the connection between that and the nuclear industry's ability to safely provide clean, zero emission, reliable and low ecologic-footprint power that can solve climate change today. These stem from long-standing cultural taboos built up over decades from media hyped and wildly exaggerated claims of the dangers of nuclear (including from some presumably reputable NGOs that are just doggedly antinuclear), leading to nearly instinctive fears and mistrust of nuclear power. The only way to overcome these feelings is either to dig deeply into the actual data about nuclear, as I did starting back in the 2010-2020 time frame, which led me to want to invest into the companies innovating to improve this technology . . . of which Radiant Nuclear was my second investment. (We've seen its growth grow by impressive multiples since then.)
Or possibly to see two women on the Main Stage at the Javitz Center chatting about their optimism for nuclear's potential to secure our future. Hopefully, this helps many more people see the blue light and wipe away irrational fears.
I'll be attending nearly all of the many nuclear-related events scheduled for NY Climate Week and immediately after for the Guggenheim Nuclear conference. If you are there are interested in learning how Nucleation Capital can help you gain affordable investment access to the premier ventures building our clean energy future, please reach out.
Hope to see you there!
