SUN VALLEY, IDAHO — Advanced nuclear companies hoping to tap into big pools of funding for their projects need to bring more than good ideas to the table, J.P. Morgan’s lead energy executive said here this week.
“I think, first and foremost, what people need to show us is that they have a company,” said Jay Horine, global head of energy, power and renewables at J.P. Morgan, during a panel Tuesday at the Nuclear Industry Council’s annual Advanced Reactors Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho. “Not that they have an idea, not that they’ve got technology but that they’ve got a company.”
As opposed to “a moonshot bet on a single technology,” advanced nuclear companies should demonstrate to would-be venture capitalists that they have “a real viable company,” Horine said. Some companies are already doing this, he added.
Horine spoke days after NuScale Power, a Fluor-majority-owned advanced nuclear firm with the only small modular reactor design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said a Japanese banking interest had taken a nearly 10% stake in the Oregon-based company. Before that, NuScale announced that it had secured roughly $10 million from a subsidiary of Houston-based investment firm Pickering Energy Partners.
Still, it’s a good time for advanced nuclear to go shopping for private funding, Horine said Tuesday. “The good news is that there’s never been more private capital available, ever. You have an unparalleled amount of private capital that’s coming from an unparalleled number of venture capital firms.”
“I think you guys have a great opportunity to tell your story and to raise money in ways that probably wouldn’t have been available even 10 years ago,” Horine said.
