Nuclear energy (2025)

The collapse of Sweden’s Northvolt had many writing obituaries for “made in Europe” batteries. These same commentators urge Europe to put its hopes in nuclear power, the future of which is still being fought over.

Go big

Fusion promises to generate near-limitless electricity with no carbon and scant pollution or radioactive waste. Unlike fission — which splits atoms — fusion welds them together. But the machines to do this are vastly complicated and have to control unimaginable temperatures.

So far, the various fusion devices — which often resemble giant, doughnut-shaped chambers — guzzle more energy than they produce.

But a number of startups are closer than ever to harnessing fusion, using fancy magnets, super strong lasers and other exotic parts. Investors who once dismissed fusion as flat-out impossible are now staking hundreds of millions of dollars on it.

If there’s a big fish in the European pond, it’s Munich-based Marvel Fusion: the company’s recent Series B top up made it the region’s best funded nuclear fusion player, taking total funds raised to €385m (we talk to the company’s CFO below). UK-based Tokamak Energy follows with $335m in total funding.

Europe’s fusion hopefuls face formidably-backed US projects, including Pacific Fusion, which raised $900m in October, and Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has raised $2bn of private funding to date, by far the most in the industry. OpenAI chief Sam Altman, meanwhile, has sunk $375m into Helion Energy, which says it will start using its tech to generate electricity for Microsoft in 2028.

“The US unquestionably boasts the most powerful money mobilisation machine,” Sifted’s editorial director John Thornhill recently wrote. “But Europe still holds some strong cards. France hosts ITER, the multinational nuclear fusion mega-project led by the EU, which has nurtured a whole supply chain of specialist manufacturers in Europe. National governments have also been supportive of the industry.”

And go small

Around a dozen companies in Europe and around the world are betting that they can make nuclear power quicker and cheaper. In the fission world, there’s great hope being placed in a new breed of mini reactors: so-called small modular reactors (SMRs), which ultimately could provide safe low-carbon energy.

France and India plan to work together on SMRs. Engineering giant Rolls-Royce has raised £455m to build prototypes, with almost half of the financing coming from the UK government. Big tech companies Google and Amazon have bought SMRs from a pair of US-based companies, Kairos Power and X-Energy. Swedish SMR developer Blykalla recently landed a €17.5m investment (a mix of grants and equity) from the European Innovation Council.

Proponents say SMRs will be unobtrusive — compared with nuclear plants — and won’t require the same large tracts of land or extensive infrastructure. The components could be mass-produced, making them cheaper and more likely to avoid the delays and cost increases that beset larger plants. SMRs could also provide a steady, around the clock backbone for a continent that’s betting heavily on renewable power.

Obstacles loom. Even if SMRs prove commercially viable, and the risk of nuclear accidents is greatly reduced, will anyone agree to live near these mini reactors? UK prime minister Keir Starmer has vowed to “push past nimbyism” to make SMRs happen. Many turned against nuclear after the 2011 Fukushima disaster — but this hard stance has considerably softened in Europe, as the continent grapples with serious energy security concerns following Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.