Fluxnium, a company developing technology to recover uranium from seawater, has raised $7 million in seed funding to develop and commercialize its technology.
The funding round was led by Congruent Ventures, with participation from Constellation Technology Ventures and Active Impact Investments.
Fluxnium aims to create a new domestic source of uranium, a key material used in the nuclear energy industry and defense supply chain.
The company is developing a special high-surface-area fiber that can absorb uranium from seawater as the water passes through it. The fiber was developed with a leading U.S. national laboratory.
Fluxnium plans to deploy the fiber on longline systems in the ocean. The systems can be retrieved, processed to collect the uranium and then placed back in the water for further use.
“The United States imports more than 90% of its uranium supply at a time when nuclear power is increasingly seen as a solution to growing demand for electricity driven by economic growth,” said Jeff Green, CEO and Founder of Fluxnium. “Fluxnium is developing a new domestic and sustainable supply of uranium, passively adsorbed from seawater on proven offshore infrastructure — at a cost projected to compete with conventional mining, with no tailings or ground water concerns.”
The company says seawater contains a very large amount of dissolved uranium, but the mineral exists at very low concentrations. Its technology is designed to collect the uranium without traditional mining.
The new funding will be used for further technology development, pilot testing and scaling the company’s system.
“With the current uranium market dynamics, there is a new path to making the ocean one of the lowest-cost sources in the world,” said Kevin Kopczynski, Partner at Congruent Ventures. “Congruent is excited to support Fluxnium as it unlocks the ocean’s potential as a major contributor to a diverse and robust domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.”
“Innovations that could expand domestic sources of uranium are important areas of research for the nuclear energy industry,” said Jason Murphy, Vice President of Nuclear Fuels, Constellation. “Fluxnium’s technology has the potential to broaden future fuel supply options and support growing demand for clean, reliable nuclear energy.”
“With global nuclear power generation projected to increase 2.5X in the next 15 years, Fluxnium is the future of uranium supply with clean, lower cost ocean adsorption displacing the environmental damage from mining and tailings,” said Tom Boddez, General Partner at Active Impact Investment. “We have strong conviction that Jeff and co-founder Jim McDermott, with their prior successes taking hardtech ideas to commercial reality, are the ideal team to seize this opportunity.”
Fluxnium believes its approach could provide an alternative to conventional uranium mining as demand for nuclear power grows. Unlike traditional mining projects, the company says its system can increase production by deploying additional fiber rather than developing new mines.
The company expects its technology could eventually offer uranium production at costs comparable to conventional mining while avoiding mining-related tailings and groundwater concerns.
