Transmutex SA, a nuclear engineering company based in Geneva, has announced a new round of financing amounting to USD 23.2 million to further develop its solution for what it believes is a safer, lower-cost, proliferation-resistant nuclear energy technology.
Founded on 29 July 2019, Transmutex is ‘reinventing’ nuclear energy with the design of a non-self-sustaining reaction technology that couples a particle accelerator to a non-self-sustaining (ie subcritical) fuel assembly. The combination is said to have several key benefits over self-sustaining nuclear energy solutions, in that the reaction can be stopped in 2 milliseconds, it can use different fuel material and enrichment levels, thereby unlocking greater resources including thorium, and that subcriticality offers a much wider safety margin, allowing the system to burn the existing stockpile of long-lived nuclear waste more efficiently. In addition, the thorium fuel does not produce plutonium and other long-lived waste.
It is further estimated that when combined with modern spent-fuel recycling technology, the system can be made sustainable for energy production over hundreds of years.
Transmutex is collaborating with governmental institutions worldwide to explore the possibility of forming of an international coalition to accelerate the development and the construction of a first-of-kind facility. It has been joined by a syndicate of new and existing investors including At One Ventures (USA), HVC (France/USA) and AlleyCorp (USA), with the participation of House of Ventures (USA), Presight Capital (USA), Verve Ventures (Switzerland), FONGIT (Switzerland) and Tiny Supercomputer Investment Co (UK), and some private investors.
Image courtesy of Transmutex
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