Terrestrial Energy surpasses $20 million financing in advance of UN forum

Oakville, Ontario’s Terrestrial Energy has closed a Series A round of funding, adding US$4 million (C$5.3 million) raised at the end of August to the previously announced C$10 million Series A in January.
Since the company’s inception, it has raised a total of C$22.5 million (US$17.2 million).
“This level of funding commitment is a milestone for advanced fission technology development,” said CEO Simon Irish. “It clearly shows that public and private market investors are moving strongly in support of Advanced Nuclear innovation.”
Terrestrial Energy is working to create small modular reactors, called Integral Molten Salt Reactors (IMSR), for use in small to modest energy markets, which the company says will be deployed “in the 2020s”, providing electricity generation both on and off-grid, as well as energy for industrial process heat generation.
Terrestrial Energy will be presenting at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Sustainable Investment Forum 2016 on September 20 in New York, an event for which the company is a sponsor.
The conference will bring together 300 stakeholders from across government, international finance, private industry and carbon finance sectors for a high-level daylong discussion during New York Climate Week.
Part of the aim of the 2016 Sustainable Investment Forum is to discuss effective public-private funding models for scaling low-carbon innovation, to help nations achieve their Paris agreement targets.
“The market need has never been greater for true game-changing energy innovation,” said Irish. “Advanced Nuclear energy is recognized as the energy technology with the best prospects for massive displacement of polluting energy sources without sacrificing cost-competitiveness or perpetuating energy poverty for billions.”
This past June, the company’s American branch, Terrestrial Energy USA, was selected as one of eight businesses to receive funding from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under its Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative.
That funding comes in the form of a voucher under the Nuclear Energy Voucher Program, redeemable at DOE national laboratories or Nuclear Science User Facility (NSUF) partner facilities and aimed at helping small businesses overcome technology and commercialization challenges.
The GAIN initiative was launched in November 2015 to provide a way to fast-track nuclear innovation in the United States, kicking off in January with an US$82 million investment from the U.S. federal government to be disbursed across 93 different projects to help kickstart the next generation of nuclear technologies towards commercialization.
“These funds we have raised enable the Company to demonstrate to industry and to governments, the commercial merits of the IMSR design, and its prospects for playing a lead role in clean energy provision starting in the 2020s,” added Irish.
In March 2016, Terrestrial Energy received a C$5.7 million grant from the federal government’s Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) SD Tech Fund.
Funding is being used to to support the company’s pre-construction and pre-licensing engineering, as well as to deepen its engagement with industry, governments and nuclear regulators.