Matt Loszak, right, and Yasir Arafat (courtesy of Aalo Atomics)

US-based Aalo Atomics has raised $27m in a Series A funding round to support its “mission to make small nuclear reactors in gigafactories”. The investment “will enable predictable low costs and shortened construction times, making clean energy a reality – any place, any time,” Aalo said. The funding round was led by 50Y and Valor Equity Partners. Other investors included Harpoon Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Preston-Werner Ventures.

In July, Aalo submitted a pre-application regulatory engagement plan (REP) with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its planned Aalo-1 microreactor. The REP details the planned pre-licensing application interactions with NRC. There is no regulatory requirement for a REP and the level of detail a prospective applicant includes are entirely voluntary and should be agreed upon in discussions with NRC staff.

In May, Aalo Atomics said it had completed the conceptual design of the Aalo-1 – a factory-fabricated 10 MW sodium-cooled microreactor that uses uranium zirconium hydride (UZrH) fuel. Also in May, Aalo signed a Siting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Energy (DOE) – the first step towards deploying the its first reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site in Idaho.

Aalo said it had raised a lot of money quickly, with a $6.26m seed round raised just over one year ago, and the recent $27m Series A funding. The company listed its achievements over the past nine months. These include:

  • Scaling the team from two to 15 people, including leaders from DOE’s MARVEL programme, executives from major utilities, other large energy companies, and more.
  • Finishing conceptual design of its first commercial reactor, the Aalo-1.
  • Signing a siting MOU with DOE as the first step towards deployment of an experimental Aalo reactor (Aalo-X) at the INL.
  • Submitting the REP to NRC with agreement from a first major potential customer. “This project entails a fleet of Aalo-1 reactors.”

Aalo plans to use the new funding to:

  • Scale the team to 30, adding key leadership talent around manufacturing, sales, EPC, fuel, engineering, finance, and product.
  • Open our new Factory HQ in Austin (Texas) in order to demonstrate mass manufacturing of the Aalo-1 reactor.
  • Work with NRC to continue to de-risk licensing of the Aalo-1.
  • Build a non-nuclear prototype (the Aalo-0) to demonstrate the technology, economics, and manufacturability.
  • Create a pathway to deliver Aalo Fuel (LEU+ UZrH) commercially.