Third Way, a think tank that says it “answers America’s challenges with modern ideas aimed at the center,” said this week that venture capital is flowing into nuclear power start ups in the United States in sizable numbers.
While venture capital for solar and wind power, hydro-fracking and advanced battery technologies gets most of the headlines, the think tank said, ideas representing “advanced nuclear” are drawing a strong response from investors.
Two concepts for a venture capital investor to consider are the “sobering reality,” the think tank said, that there is a need to bring electricity to 1.3 billion people around the world now living without any, all the while adding as little as possible to the global carbon footprint that contributes to global warming.
The second sobering consideration is the point that capital funneled into new nuclear power ideas is almost guaranteed to represent a very slow return on the investment. Even if a nuclear power concept gets a green light at every turn, there are still dozens of local, state and federal agencies that step in to saddle any advancement in red-tape crawl.
Regardless, said Third Way, there are “nearly 50 companies, backed by more than $1.3 billion in private capital, developing plans for new nuclear plants in the United States and Canada.”
“The mix includes startups and big-name investors like Bill Gates, all placing bets on a nuclear comeback, hoping to get the technology in position to win in an increasingly carbon-constrained world,” Third Way said.
The funding, their report said, is “not about your grandfather’s nuclear technology.” This money, the report said, is going to think-outside-the-box concepts, such as small modular reactors, plants that run on spent fuel, and plants that cost less and are quicker to build than current build projects.
Besides SMRs, two of the more innovative concepts attracting investors are the use of molten salt, high temperature gasses or liquid metal as coolants and the possibility of going beyond fission.
“Third Way has found major investment and interest in nuclear fusion from both small and large companies. Though this technology has much left to refine before commercialization, the growth has been staggering,” the report said.