Existing significant patent portfolio supports newcleo’s development of safe, clean, inexhaustible nuclear energy and push for a carbon neutral world
LONDON, UK, 31 August 2021 – newcleo, the clean and safe nuclear technology company, today announced its incorporation with the closing of a USD 118 million initial capital raising and the acquisition of Hydromine Nuclear Energy S.à r.l. (HNE).
newcleo’s disruptive approach is based on the innovative application of well-developed technologies, including, (1) Lead Fast Reactors (LFRs), which utilise lead as a coolant rather than water or sodium, (2) Accelerator Driven Systems (ADSs), based on coupling a sub-critical reactor with a particle accelerator and (3) the use of natural thorium fuel.
The application of these technologies has the potential to:
1. dramatically decrease the volume of radioactive waste produced, while eliminating the need of a geological repository for transuranic elements;
2. much more effective use of existing uranium fuel, while moving toward the use of natural thorium;
3. avoid nuclear accidents as the reactor core remains, at all times sub-critical, and the nuclear cascade can be instantly interrupted by switching off the accelerator.
Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia, who invented ADSs while he was Director General at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), shares newcleo’s vision for clean nuclear energy and is personally supportive of newcleo’s mission.
newcleo’s core leadership team brings a decades-long track record in both scientific and entrepreneurial achievements: Stefano Buono as CEO, the former founder of the NASDAQ-listed Advanced Accelerator Applications (sold to Novartis in 2018); Luciano Cinotti as Chief Scientific Officer; Elisabeth Rizzotti as Chief Operating Officer and CEO of the Italian research operations.
With headquarters in London, an ideal base for global operations requiring connectivity and an international workforce, newcleo will initially base its research team in Turin, Italy. There, over 100 ‘energy innovators’ will work under the oversight of a Scientific Committee with extensive nuclear energy experience.
newcleo’s first key development will be the LFR ‘Re-Act’ project; a liquid lead modular micro-reactor with significant commercial applications, for example in shipping. This prototype will be the realisation of a concept known at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the LFR-TL-X project1. Within the next five years, the company intends to finalise the design and realise a full-scale non-nuclear industrial prototype in collaboration with ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), that also shares one of newcleo’s patents.
As demonstrated by the successful acquisition of HNE, newcleo’s strategy is to actively pursue all the necessary M&A transactions and partnerships across the globe among energy sector players, institutions, academia and investors, as well as ad hoc acquisitions to rapidly bring to market its projects and create a new industrial standard.
The capital raising has gathered strong international interest led by several visionary individuals and also supported by some institutional investors, including New York-based Exor Seeds, and Turin-based LIFTT and Club degli Investitori.
Remarking on this memorable launch day, Stefano Buono, newcleo CEO, commented:
About newcleo
newcleo is the clean and safe nuclear technology company. Privately funded and headquartered in London, UK, newcleo was launched in 2021 to be a disruptor in the field of nuclear energy. Its mission is to generate safe, clean and inexhaustible energy for the world, through a radically innovative combination of existing,
accessible technologies. newcleo is building the next generation system with the goals to: (1) eliminate the need for geological repositories by using a fast neutron flux avoiding production of long life radioactive elements; (2) develop an Accelerator Driven System (ADS), based on the intrinsically safe coupling of a particle accelerator and a sub-critical reactor; (3) accelerate the development of new fuel cycles, including thorium, that provide economic, clean, safe and inexhaustible energy from nuclei and the opportunity to burn the long-lived nuclear
waste produced by the old generation of nuclear reactors.
With visionary co-founders, newcleo brings together a team of engineers with deep knowledge of nuclear energy with younger recruits with a fresh mindset, working to design an innovative micro Lead Fast Reactor with significant commercial applications, for example in shipping.
newcleo wants to be the first step toward the evolution of its industry to become fully respectful of people
and the environment. To develop a new, sustainable, and completely safe way of generating nuclear energy
that will lead humanity to zero emissions, and to the mitigation of global warming.
