Startup expects its first Kaleidos reactor to power on at Idaho National Lab next year

Amid the AI boom, nuclear power is in vogue, with venture capitalists lining up to plow hundreds of millions into small modular reactor (SMR) startups to make their datacenter energy headaches go away.

On Wednesday, Radiant, an El Segundo, California-based startup founded in 2020, said it raised more than $300 million in a funding round led by Draper Associates and Boost VC to commercialize its semi-trailer-sized microreactors.

The company expects to break ground on an SMR manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee next year.

"This funding enables us to build our factory and keep to our DOME schedule, where we will achieve a self-sustained chain reaction on a reactor designed by, built by, fueled by, and operated by Radiant alongside our partners at the Idaho National Lab," Radiant CEO Doug Bernauer said in a canned statement.

DOME refers to Idaho National Laboratory's Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments project, where Radiant ...