ESG Today writes that Washington D.C.-based Last Energy develops small nuclear reactors with a power production capacity of 20 MWe, enabling large-scale decarbonization around the world. The company's solution could potentially overcome the barriers in adopting nuclear power, some of which are the complexity of traditional, large facilities and even the cost associated with building such a unit.

Micro-nuclear reactors, on the other hand, are modular and can be mass-manufactured, being cheaper and easier to install.

Last Energy's first product, dubbed PWR-20 is a micro-nuclear power plant that is made up of "a few dozen modules that snap together like a LEGO kit", with a design that allows for its assembly in around two years. The product is destined mostly towards private companies looking to adopt renewable power, but which need large amounts of the energy for their operations.

Last Energy, which aims to start manufacturing the small reactors in 2026, already signed agreements to deliver 80 such units, and says that the recent 40 million USD financing will be used to expand the team, as well as to continue the development of the product.

Bret Kugelmass, Founder and CEO of Last Energy, said that "data centers need technologies that can simultaneously provide energy abundance, ensure energy security, and enable decarbonization. Nuclear power is the only resource that can check all of those boxes on paper, but it will only be feasible if nuclear development becomes faster and more affordable in practice."

The company claims it wants to produce 10.000 small nuclear reactors over the coming 15 years.