The nuclear industry is in the midst of a renaissance. Old factories are being renovated and investors are flooding startups with cash. In the final weeks of 2025 alone, nuclear startups have raised $1.1 billion, driven largely by investor optimism that smaller nuclear reactors will succeed where the broader industry has recently stumbled.
Traditional nuclear reactors are huge pieces of infrastructure. The newest reactors built in the US — Vogtle 3 and 4 in Georgia — contain tens of thousands of tons of concrete, are fueled by 14-foot-tall fuel assemblies and generate more than 1 gigawatt of electricity each. But they were also eight years late and more than $20 billion over budget.
The new crop of nuclear startups hopes that by shrinking the reactor, they can circumvent both problems. Need more power? Just add more reactors. Smaller reactors, they argue, can be built using mass-production techniques, and as companies produce more parts, they should get better at making them, which will lower costs.
The size of this advantage is something experts believe still researchingbut today’s nuclear startups depend on it being greater than zero.
But the construction is not easy. Just look at Tesla’s experience: The company struggled hard to profitably produce the Model 3 in large numbers — and it had the advantage of being in the auto industry, where the U.S. still has significant expertise. American nuclear startups do not have this advantage.
“I have several friends who work in the nuclear supply chain and they can knock off like five to ten materials that we just don’t make in the United States.” Milo Wernergeneral partner of DCVC, told TechCrunch. “We have to buy them overseas. We’ve forgotten how to make them.”
Werner knows a thing or two about construction. Before becoming an investor, he worked at Tesla in pioneering new product introductions, and before that, he did the same at FitBit, launching four factories in China for the wearables company. Today, in addition to investing in DCVC, Werner has co-founded the NextGen Industry Group, which works to advance the adoption of new technologies in the manufacturing sector.
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When companies of any size want to build something, they face two main challenges, Werner said. One is capital, which is often the biggest constraint since factories are not cheap. Fortunately for the nuclear industry, this shouldn’t be much of a problem. “It’s full of capital right now,” he said.
But the nuclear industry is not immune to the other challenge that all manufacturers face, which is a lack of human capital. “We haven’t really built any industrial facilities in 40 years in the United States,” Werner said. As a result, we have lost muscle memory. “It’s like sitting on the couch watching TV for 10 years and then getting up and trying to run a marathon the next day. It’s not good.”
After decades of offshoring, the US is short of people with experience in both building and operating factories. “There are certainly some people in the United States doing this, but we don’t have the number of people we need to all have a full staff of experienced builders.” It doesn’t just speak to machine operators, but to everyone from plant supervisors to CFOs and board members.
The good news is that Werner sees many startups, nuclear and otherwise, building early versions of their products in close proximity to their technical team. “That pulls production closer to the United States because it allows them to have that cycle of improvement.”
To reap the benefits of mass production, it’s helpful for startups of all stripes to start small and scale. “Really leaning towards modular is very important to investors,” he said. The modular approach helps companies start producing small volumes early so they can collect data on the production process. Ideally, this data will show improvement over time, which may put investors at ease.
The benefits of mass production don’t happen overnight. Companies will often anticipate cost reductions that can come from learning by making, but it can take longer than they expect. “It often takes years, like a decade, to get there,” Werner said.
