Standard Nuclear raises $140M as nuclear power enters its gold rush era Tim De Chant 7:07 AM PST · January 28, 2026 As the nuclear power gold rush enters into full swing — spurred by AI companies’ desperate need for electricity — the sellers of “picks and shovels” are starting to cash in, too.
By the end of 2025, nuclear startups had raised $1.1 billion , all for small modular reactors. The deal flow is now extending to those critical suppliers in the nuclear industry. And Standard Nuclear , which makes nuclear fuel to feed those reactors, is one of them.
The company said it has raised $140 million in a Series A round led by Decisive Point with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Chevron Technology Ventures, Crucible Capital, Fundomo, StepStone Group, Washington Harbour Partners, Welara, and XTX Ventures.
The round was completed in two tranches of $70 million each after Standard Nuclear hit milestones sooner than expected in the wake of President Donald Trump’s nuclear-related executive orders last year, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.
The new round comes seven months after Standard Nuclear emerged from “stealth” with $42 million in funding. Air quotes are required here; Standard Nuclear is built on the ashes of the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC), which went bankrupt in October 2024. The bankrupt company had been working to commercialize a nuclear fuel called TRi-structural ISOtropic particle fuel, or TRISO, for years. Decisive Point’s founder, Thomas Hendrix, bought USNC’s fuel-related assets in the bankruptcy auction for $28 million.
TRISO fuel was originally conceptualized in the 1950s. Uranium particles about the size of a poppy seed are coated in ceramic and carbon. Those are then packed into larger spheres. Altogether, the design of the fuel pellets is supposed to be more resistant to melting down.
TRISO isn’t widely used today. And yet, many nuclear startups say they’ll be using TRISO in their reactors. Standard Nuclear has said it has $100 million in non-binding sales for 2027. Its customers include Radiant Energy, another Decisive Point portfolio company, and Nano Nuclear Energy, which bought USNC’s reactor assets.
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Tim De Chant Senior Reporter, Climate
Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.
De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.
You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing [email protected] .
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