New nuclear player looks to enter the UK

A POTENTIAL nuclear power player with ambitions for the UK market is working to raise up to €1bn (£870m) in an upcoming equity raise.

Newcleo is looking to raise the funds to support the developments of its leadcooled fast nuclear reactors (LFRs) and its plants to manufacture fuel from nuclear waste.

The company is exploring nuclear sites in France and the UK to develop a plant to manufacture fuel exclusively from existing nuclear waste.

It is aiming to deploy 30 megawatt LFRs in France by the end of the decade, rapidly followed by a 200MWe commercial unit in the UK only two years later.

Launched in September 2021, the company has already completed two capital raises, raising a total of €400m buoyed by international investors.

The LFRs will be constructed similarly to small modular reactors, with manufacturing and construction standardised in factories, rather than built on site such as with conventional nuclear power plants.

The funds will aid Newcleo's strategic expansion into manufacturing nuclear fuel for its next-generation reactors made from existing waste produced by traditional reactors. This will include the establishment of a first mixed plutonium-uranium oxides (MOX) production plant in France, with another plant to follow later in the UK.

Newcleo argues MOX will decrease the environmental and financial cost of disposing of long-living radioactive waste and completely avoid the need to mine for new nuclear fuel.

Newcleo boss Stefano Buono said its tech "can address decarbonisation of the energy systems and security of energy supply - two of the biggest challenges facing countries [globally]."