Nuclear startups face their toughest test: are they capable of mass production?

The nuclear energy industry is experiencing a pivotal moment. Investors are massively directing capital into small modular reactor projects, and startups have raised as much as 1.1 billion dollars within a few weeks of 2025. Enthusiasm is driven by long-standing industry disappointments — gigantic reactors like Vogtle 3 and 4 in Georgia (each with a capacity of over 1 gigawatt) have absorbed an additional 20 billion dollars and appeared eight years later than planned.

The idea of a new generation of nuclear startups sounds enticing: reduce size, increase the number of units, apply mass production techniques known from the automotive or consumer electronics industries. In theory — each new batch should be produced cheaper and more efficiently. The problem is, in practice, this theory proves much harder to implement than it seems.

America’s Workshop has been emptying for four decades

Milo Werner, partner at the investment fund DCVC, raises an issue that few people pay attention to: the United States simply forgot how to build factories. “No serious manufacturing plant has been built here in 40 years,” says Werner, who has experience at both Tesla and Fitbit, where she personally led production launches in China.

The result? Supply chains are broken, and materials must be imported. Experts working in the nuclear manufacturing sector can list five to ten raw materials that we simply do not produce in the USA. This puts startups in a completely different situation than Tesla, which, although faced with scaling issues with the Model 3, was at least operating in an industry where America retained experience.

Capital is not the main problem, but people are the challenge

Nuclear startups are in a fortunate position regarding funding — “they have an excess of capital,” notes Werner. The high cost of factories traditionally hampers business ambitions, but that is not the case here.

Worse news concerns human resources. Knowledge about building and managing factories is scattered and in short supply. It’s not just about machine operators but entire specialized teams: from production floor managers, through process engineers, to CFOs. “We sat on the couch for 40 years. Running a marathon the next day is a bad plan,” illustrates Werner the scale of the problem.

Modularity as a path to success

There are several solutions. Startups should build initial prototypes close to technical teams — then continuous process improvement is possible. Modular approach is key: production begins with small quantities, data is collected, and scaling is gradual.

Investors value this caution. Realism also requires accepting time: realizing benefits from mass production is a matter of years, sometimes even decades. Many nuclear startups understand this well — so instead of immediately building megareactors, they will focus on small, modular solutions.

In other words: startups must learn to walk first before trying to run. For the nuclear industry, this will be a test not only of technological innovation but also of the ability to implement things in practice.