(August 6, 2014) Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Transatomic Power Corporation received $2 million from FF Science, part of Founders Fund's $1 billion investment pool targeted at science and engineering-based companies.
Transatomic is a nuclear reactor designed company that wants to turn high-level nuclear waste into electric power. The company has developed a 200 MW Waste-Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR). The reactor can be powered by nuclear waste using radically different technology from conventional plants. Instead of using solid fuel pins, nuclear waste is dissolved into a molten salt. Suspending the fuel in a liquid allows it to be kept in the reactor longer, and therefore capture more of its energy. Conventional nuclear reactors can utilize only about 3% - 5% of the potential fission energy in a given amount of uranium before it has to be removed from the reactor. This particular model reportedly captures 96% of the remaining energy.
Transatomic Power was founded in 2011 by MIT nuclear scientists Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie, who previously managed to raise nearly $1.5 million, mostly from angel investors.
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