One critical and often overlooked bottleneck to advanced nuclear deployment is fuel. Dozens of reactor developers are racing to commercialize next-gen designs, but the specialized fuel manufacturing infrastructure required to power those nuclear reactors presents an opportunity.
Standard Nuclear is the reactor-agnostic fuel supplier positioned to unlock the nuclear bottleneck with TRISO (TRi-structural ISOtropic particle) fuel for advanced reactors. After a conversation with CEO Kurt Terrani on a recent episode of Inevitable, MCJ is thrilled to announce our participation in Standard Nuclear’s $140M Series A, led by Decisive Point.
What is Standard Nuclear?
Standard Nuclear manufactures TRISO for advanced reactors and provides fuel-line services, including chemical conversion and qualification. Based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee–where uranium was first enriched at scale during the Manhattan Project–the company is already manufacturing fuel today.
TRISO fuel consists of microscopic uranium kernels–each about the size of a poppy seed–encapsulated in multiple carbon and ceramic layers, including a silicon carbide barrier that contains radioactive fission products at extreme temperatures. Unlike conventional fuel that requires massive containment structures, TRISO particles can withstand temperatures up to 2,000°C, while retaining their integrity. This enables passive safety characteristics and compact core designs that are central to next-gen reactor architectures.
Standard Nuclear positions itself as an independent merchant supplier rather than a captive OEM fuel provider. This allows the company to serve a broader market. For example, while several reactor developers plan to vertically integrate fuel production for their own fleets, aggregate TRISO demand is expected to exceed capacity for an extended period. More importantly, utilities and operators have decades of experience avoiding single-source fuel dependency in light water reactors. They prefer multiple suppliers for negotiating leverage and supply security. That same dynamic will drive demand for independent TRISO suppliers as advanced reactors scale.
Why Did We Invest?
CEO Kurt Terrani brings deep technical expertise and rare commercialization experience to Standard Nuclear. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from UC Berkeley (2010) and spent over a decade in the DOE national laboratory system, including roles as a Senior Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and National Technical Director for the U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. His research focused on nuclear fuel and materials manufacturing, radiation effects, and fuel behavior, the exact technical foundation required for TRISO production.
At UltraSafe Nuclear, Kurt led the core division responsible for fuel and core structural materials development, where he built the pilot-scale fuel manufacturing line that would become the foundation for Standard Nuclear. When UltraSafe entered financial distress in 2024, Kurt joined the board and helped navigate a Chapter 11 restructuring that preserved the fuel assets and team.
Standard Nuclear emerged from that process with Kurt as CEO, bringing the entire DOE Advanced Gas Reactor program team with him. The company is the only group in the U.S. with hands-on TRISO production experience at scale.
Kurt describes his passion: “I’m an ultimate nuclear nerd, so I care a lot about where we’re doing something to the nucleus of the atom.” That technical depth, combined with the experience of taking a fuel line from R&D to commercial production, makes Kurt and his team uniquely positioned to solve the TRISO bottleneck.
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