Venture Atlas

Reports over the weekend of June 13-14 said Japan plans to invest up to $25 billion in NuScale Power and U.S.-led small modular reactor projects, part of a broader nuclear commitment exceeding $65 billion within Japan's roughly $550 billion U.S. investment package negotiated in trade talks. NuScale (NYSE: SMR) shares jumped more than 5% in overnight trading into June 15 on the news, which centers on building out an SMR supply chain inside the United States and supporting global deployment of NuScale's reactors with commercialization partner ENTRA1. The pledge is one of the largest international commitments to American SMR technology to date.

TerraPower said on June 16 that its 345-MWe Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor has formally entered the UK's Generic Design Assessment, the Office for Nuclear Regulation-led licensing process that vets a reactor's safety, security and environmental case independent of a site. The Bill Gates-founded company also launched a UK subsidiary, TerraPower UK Ltd, to pursue British deployment. The move follows the April 23 start of construction on TerraPower's flagship Kemmerer Unit 1 in Wyoming, the first U.S. utility-scale advanced reactor build, which is targeted for completion around 2030.

Fusion developer Helion Energy closed a $465 million Series G round in early June, lifting the Everett, Washington company's valuation to about $15.5 billion. The round was led by Thrive Capital, with new backers including Lux Capital, Peak XV Partners and Ford Motor executive chairman Bill Ford, and will fund Helion's first power plant, expand Washington manufacturing, and support its pledge to deliver fusion power to Microsoft by 2028. The raise follows Helion becoming the first company in the world to secure regulatory licenses for a fusion power facility and reporting measurable deuterium-tritium fusion at 150 million degrees Celsius on its Polaris prototype.

United Launch Alliance launched its Vulcan rocket on the USSF-106 mission for the U.S. Space Force on June 11, the rocket's first national security launch and ULA's 101st national security mission overall. The flight followed an anomaly investigation into a Vulcan solid rocket booster issue, resolved after a successful Northrop Grumman GEM 63XL static fire test in mid-April. ULA expects to fly 20 to 25 missions in 2026, including a September Vulcan launch carrying 45 Amazon Leo satellites on an optimized Centaur V upper stage.