When nuclear energy turns into business. Nuclear energy has become more than a trendy subject in the past year, especially around EU taxonomy which deals with the possibility of classifying nuclear energy and natural gas as “green investments” . Europe is divided and the positions on the issue vary a lot, some are PRO nuclear energy, others are CONTRA. The energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and the following restrictions Russian gas Made the discussion on the future of European energy sources even more complicated.
In the middle of the tense debate, the British startup NewCleo secures 300 million euros Investment for its uranium recycling project. How does it work, read below.
NewCleo: The future belongs to those who have the energy to imagine it
Founded and led by Stefano Buono (Italian also founded advanced acceleration applications, later bought by Novartis for $ 4 billion), NewCleo works on small modular reactors (SMR) and wants to use the so -called Mox technology to do To do it possible at recycle uranium spent from conventional nuclear power plants. To date, most of the exhausted uranium from European countries has been recycled in Russia.
Newcleo is one of the many start-ups that are gaining momentum following the rebirth of nuclear energy in Europe. 100 million euros in risk capital have already been raised in 2021, and now another € will be added. The first objective is to increase the number of employees in the United Kingdom, France (Lyon) and Italy (Turin) at 500. With the SMRS and the MOX (more on this subject later) in combination with taxonomy of the EU planned (nuclear energy should be a “green” investment) and geopolitical turmoil, Newcleo sees Good market opportunities.
“Recent geopolitical developments have undeniably strengthened the importance of nuclear power to ensure global energy security and the change of necessary step in decarbonization efforts. The momentum is strong and the appetite of the capital market is obvious. This is the right time to change the paradigm of nuclear energy to new technologies, which can effectively respond to the main concerns of our industry – costs, security and waste – in a sustainable way,“Said CEO Stefano Buono.
France in sight
In France, the startup has already opened a door via a partnership with the Orano nuclear energy company as a chance of advance MOX technology. It is not an invention of the startup, but a long -standing method to produce so -called mixed oxide fuel (MOX for short). In this process, the uranium fuel spent is mixed with plutonium dioxide, sometimes also thorium dioxide, and can then be used again in nuclear reactors. The second promise: Mox should be a means of Bring plutonium to secondary use in the energy sector As is generally produced for nuclear weapons ,.
NEWCELOO now promises that the advancement of MOX will reduce the elimination costs of radioactive waste and eliminate the need to dismantle new nuclear fuels. However, MOX has been due since the latest Fukushima nuclear disaster at the latest, because 32 MOX fuel elements were used there in addition to uranium fuel elements. A few months after the disaster, the Sellafield Mox factory in Great Britain, one of the main manufacturers of Mox fuel elements, was closed because The situation of demand on international markets has changed.
Controversy on “green” “nuclear energy”
Now Newcleo and his investors can feel a return from Mox. In France, MOX has already been approved for use in rapid nuclear reactors, and it can also be sold in Britain. At the same time, work is done in Italy on prototypes of non-nuclear reactors with the partner ENEA, that is to say the Italian energy and environment agency. Nuclear power plants no longer work in Italy; The country abandoned nuclear energy after the Chernobyl disaster.
In the EU, the question of How to manage nuclear energy in the future is always a major problem. While countries like France have strongly counts, there is a lot of resistance, in particular in Germany and Austria. Recently, the EU Parliament Committees voted against the classification of nuclear energy and gas as “green”.
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