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Transatomic Snags $2 Million Investment from FF Science for New Reactor Design

By Eric McErlain
Transatomic Power Logo
We generally don't pay much attention to news from the venture capital community here at NEI Nuclear Notes, but for one day we're happy to make an exception for this announcement from Transatomic Power:
Transatomic Power, developers of a breakthrough in nuclear reactor design, announced today that FF Science, an investment vehicle of Founders Fund, has invested $2 million to assist the company with its seed stage development. The funds will be used for bench-top laboratory testing and refinement of the company’s designs and computer models.

"We believe there are massive opportunities for innovation across all parts of the energy sector, ranging from technologies to improve production and transmission to new methods of baseload generation, like the Transatomic Power reactor. Transatomic has the potential to make nuclear energy clean, safe, and affordable, providing a low-cost source of carbon-free power and consuming the waste of older reactors currently in operation,” said Scott Nolan, Partner at Founders Fund.
Congratulations to the team at Transatomic, and in particular to Chief Science Officer, Leslie Dewan. Most of the world got their first chance to know Dewan thanks to this 2011 Ted Talk where she first posited her idea about how she could tackle the question of used nuclear fuel by burning it in a new type of reactor. It wasn't long after that Dewan caught the attention of Forbes, being named to the magazine's "30 Under 30" feature in 2012.

Of course, here at NEI, we know Dewan all too well as she's one of the four faces of our Future of Energy campaign that we kicked off earlier this year.



To get to know Dewan a little better, watch this video interview she did after shooting the NEI ad. And when you get a chance, please check out the website for Founders Fund, where it looks like the Founders are having more fun investing in the future than they might want to let on. What other startups have they invested in? How about Facebook, SpaceX and Spotify? Have to like that track record.

UPDATE: Check out additional coverage from the Wall Street Journal,  Xconomy and Reuters. Apparently, it's tough out there on energy companies looking for VC support.
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Comments

dennisearlbaker said…
guess you'll block this one !

http://sfy.co/gb3A
August 5, 2014 at 10:59 AM
Engineer-Poet said…
I wish he had blocked that one.  I wouldn't have wasted my time determining that it was nonsense.
August 5, 2014 at 10:44 PM
trag said…
Nuclear energy is already "clean, safe and affordable". We don't need Transatomic to make it so. It's great that they're developing an innovative new reactor, but denigrating the rest of the industry in order to build themselves up is factually wrong, and will not benefit them or the industry in the long run.
August 6, 2014 at 12:02 PM
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