Clean tech startup Fluxnium found a way to tap 50,000 years’ worth of nuclear fuel
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has ambitious plans to triple the capacity of its nuclear power plants by 2050, but that goal might hit a roadblock if plant operators can’t buy fuel at reasonable prices. Prices for yellowcake, a form of unrefined uranium, are up 75% in the last five years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Further complicating matters, the U.S. doesn’t have significant resources within its borders — unless you consider the ocean. The ocean has over 4 billion metric tons of uranium in it, enough for 50,000 years or so. “It’s like a thousand times more than all identified hard rock mines combined,” Jeff Green, founder and CEO of the clean tech Fluxnium, told TechCrunch. Fluxnium thinks it has solved the problem of how to extract uranium from seawater. Using technology developed at U.S. Department of Energy national labs, the company has an approach that could be competitive with existing uranium mines. The startup has been working in stealth until now to develop the new technology. Fluxnium gave TechCrunch an exclusive look at its technology. The startup recently closed a $7 million seed round led by Congruent Ventures with participation from Active Impact Investments and Constellation Energy, which operates the largest nuclear fleet in the U.S. Fluxnium is emerging as the nuclear industry in the U.S. undergoes a renaissance.
