Startup to focus on countries that have committed to long-term fuel recycling plans
Nuclear energy startup Newcleo has announced it will wind down its UK reactor development and deployment activities to focus on “more substantially supportive” countries such as the US and France.
The Paris, France-headquartered company said the decision could affect around 150 of its UK staff.
Newcleo is developing Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) designed to operate with recycled nuclear fuel, offering the promise of greater sustainability and reduced waste in nuclear energy production.
The company has raised over €537m ($613m) from backers since its launch in late 2021, including a €135m funding round in 2024.
After undertaking a review of its global operations, Newcleo said its board resolved to concentrate resources on “territories committed to realising a closed fuel cycle”.
These include the US, which has expanded nuclear investment under president Donald Trump’s second administration, France, Slovakia and Lithuania.
Newcleo said France is a “key market” for the company whose government has “actually committed to long-term fuel recycling plans”.
In Slovakia, Newcleo has established a joint venture with state-owned nuclear company Javys to build four LFRs. Newcleo signed a similar agreement with the Lithuanian government in June, the company said.
Newcleo said it had intended to develop an initial site of up to four reactors in the UK, producing a total of 800 MW and representing £4bn (€4.6bn, $5.2bn) of investment.
The company estimated the project would have created around 400 jobs for the 60-year operation of the plant as well as “thousands of jobs in construction and the wider supply chain”.
Commitments ‘Have Not Been Forthcoming’
Longer term, Newcleo said its broader objective was to build up to 20 reactors generating around 4 GW.
The startup also planned to make use of the UK’s plutonium stockpile at Sellafield in Cumbria, as well as potentially using reprocessed fuel from new nuclear sites such as Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.
Since its founding, Newcleo said it has “continuously engaged with successive government administrations” on gaining access to the UK’s stock of stored plutonium, alongside underlining the need for “in principle” government support for AMR projects.
But in January, the UK government announced that the country’s stockpile of some 140 tonnes of civil plutonium would be immobilised and eventually disposed of in a geological disposal facility.
The company said despite significant funding allocated to SMR technologies in the recent spending review, similar commitments for next generation advanced modular reactor technologies “have not been forthcoming”.
In June, Newcleo’s LFR-AS-200 reactor design was accepted to enter the UK’s generic design assessment, a voluntary, non-mandatory pre-licensing process.
