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Investors outline nuclear opportunities beyond building reactors
Summary
Panelists advised VCs to look beyond reactors to fuel supply chain, enrichment, behind'the'meter uses and end'use applications; they emphasized customer needs, small-market entry and clustered talent as paths to build businesses.
Moderator Ben Lambert challenged panelists to describe investment opportunities in nuclear without mentioning reactors. John Fogel Song (founding partner, Friends and Family Capital) recommended focusing on customer needs such as large industrial onsite power, citing a California manufacturer that uses 10'15 megawatts and would value reliability and control.
Andrew Schwab (investor, In-Q-Tel/IQT) highlighted underinvested elements of the fuel supply chain and the potential to deploy nuclear energy flexibly across new end uses, including space operational energy and other applications that could become viable if fuel and deployment costs fall. "The ability to deploy energy flexibly ... across various applications" was central to his thesis.
Scott Nolan (Founders Fund; General Matter) urged investors to target small markets where a company can achieve dominant product'market fit, then expand. He said investors should "get a 100% of a tiny market" rather than a small share of a massive market, and that such a path lets startups scale capital needs more manageably.
The panelists repeatedly pointed to supply-chain and fuel-production gaps, workforce capacity and clustered regional talent as complementary investment opportunities that do not require immediate commercial reactors to create viable businesses.
