Global steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal has announced that it has invested $25 million in nuclear innovation company TerraPower through its XCarb® Innovation Fund. The investment is part of an $830 million equity raise TerraPower has concluded, which is the largest private raise among advanced nuclear companies.

TerraPower, which was founded by Bill Gates in 2008, entered the nuclear energy arena because the company’s founders saw clean energy as the pathway to lift billions out of poverty. It has spent the last decade investing in and developing ground-breaking nuclear technologies.

Its flagship technology is Natrium™, which features a sodium fast reactor combined with a molten salt energy storage system. TerraPower is currently building its first Natrium™ reactor, a TerraPower and GE Hitachi technology, as part of the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The facility, being constructed near the site of a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, will feature a 345 MWe sodium fast reactor alongside an energy storage system that can boost output to 500 MWe during peak demand.

''The XCarb® Innovation Fund is designed to invest in the best and brightest innovations which hold the potential to accelerate the world’s transition to net zero and support the decarbonization of our industry, which is intrinsically linked to access to an abundant supply of clean energy solutions.''

Irina Gorbounova, head of the XCarb® Innovation fund, ArcelorMittal

Commenting on the investment, Irina Gorbounova, head of the XCarb® Innovation fund, ArcelorMittal, said: “Having been in discussions with TerraPower for some time, we have been very impressed by the quality and ambition of the company’s technology and people. The XCarb® Innovation Fund is designed to invest in the best and brightest innovations which hold the potential to accelerate the world’s transition to net zero and support the decarbonisation of our industry, which is intrinsically linked to access to an abundant supply of clean energy solutions. TerraPower is therefore a perfect fit for our Innovation Fund, and we are delighted to join its investor base.”

ArcelorMittal’s XCarb® Innovation Fund was launched in March last year. The fund’s purpose is to supplement the company’s decarbonization technology development programme, by investing in early stage, breakthrough technologies which hold strong potential to contribute to the decarbonization of steelmaking.

Since launching, the fund has made investments of $122.5 million in five companies – Heliogen, Form Energy, LanzaTech, H2Pro and TerraPower.