The nuclear industry is in the fog of a renaissance. Old factories are being renovated and investors are pouring cash into startups. In the last few weeks of 2025 alone, nuclear startups raised $1.1 billion, largely due to investor optimism that small nuclear reactors would succeed, something the entire industry had recently stumbled over.
Traditional nuclear reactors are huge pieces of infrastructure. The newest nuclear reactors built in the United States (Voigtle 3 and 4 in Georgia) contain tens of thousands of tons of concrete, are powered by 14-foot-tall fuel assemblies, and each generate more than 1 gigawatt of electricity. But they were eight years late and over $20 billion over budget.
A new group of nuclear startups hopes to avoid both problems by downsizing nuclear reactors. Need more power? Just add a reactor. They argue that smaller reactors can be built using mass-production techniques, and that the more parts a company produces, the better and cheaper the manufacturing technology should be.
Experts are still studying the magnitude of that profit, but today’s nuclear startups depend on it being greater than zero.
However, manufacturing is not easy. Let’s look at Tesla’s experience. The company had a very hard time producing the Model 3 in large numbers and making a profit, but it also had the advantage of being in an auto industry where the United States still had significant expertise. U.S. nuclear startups have no such advantage.
“I have a number of friends who work in the nuclear supply chain, and they sometimes rattle off five to 10 materials that aren’t manufactured in the U.S.,” Milo Werner, general partner at DCVC, told TechCrunch. “I have to buy it from overseas. I’ve forgotten how to make it.”
Werner knows a thing or two about manufacturing. Prior to becoming an investor, he led new product introductions at Tesla and before that at Fitbit, where he similarly launched four factories in China for the wearables company. Today, in addition to his investment in DCVC, Werner co-founded the NextGen Industry Group, which works to accelerate the adoption of new technologies in manufacturing.
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When companies of any size try to manufacture anything, Werner says they face two major challenges. One is capital. Factory prices aren’t cheap, so this is often the biggest constraint. Fortunately for the nuclear industry, that won’t be a big problem. “They’re flooded with capital right now,” she says.
But the nuclear industry is not immune to another challenge that all manufacturers face: a lack of human capital. “We haven’t actually built an industrial facility in the United States in 40 years,” Warner said. As a result, muscle memory was lost. “It’s like if we sit on the couch and watch TV for 10 years and then get up the next day and try to run a marathon. That’s not good.”
After decades of offshoring, the U.S. has a shortage of people with experience in both building and operating factories. “There are certainly some people in the U.S. doing this, but we don’t have the talent needed to have a full skilled manufacturing staff.” She’s not just talking about machine operators, but everyone from shop floor supervisors to CFOs and board members.
The good news is that Werner sees many startups, nuclear or otherwise, building early versions of their products in close proximity to their technology teams. “Moving manufacturing closer to the United States allows for cycles of improvement.”
To reap the benefits of mass production, it helps startups of all kinds to start small and scale up. “It’s really important for investors to take modularity seriously,” she said. A modular approach helps companies start producing small volumes early and allows them to collect data about the manufacturing process. Ideally, that data can show improvement over time and reassure investors.
The benefits of mass production do not come overnight. Companies often anticipate cost savings from learning through manufacturing, but it may take longer than expected. “It often takes years, even 10 years, to get there,” Werner said.
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