A nuclear startup is targeting the steam generator instead of the reactor core in an effort to cut the cost of nuclear electricity. Apollo Atomics, founded by Assil Halimi and Drew Walker, closed a $26 million seed round that included $5 million in debt, the company told TechCrunch. The money funds a demonstration reactor ahead of a planned commercial deployment in 2028.
Steam generators convert heat from a reactor coolant loop into the steam that drives a turbine. Conventional units are hand built and stand several stories tall. Apollo says its version is roughly the size of a person and can be mass manufactured, which allows the surrounding reactor system to shrink by a factor of 40 compared with a design built around a conventional generator.
"We focus on the largest component, the steam generator," Halimi said. He added that the company has been able to shrink that component and make the whole system far more compact than other reactors on the market.
The design threads the coolant loop and the steam loop through a compact block of metal laced with needle thin channels, a layout that raises heat transfer efficiency and permits the smaller footprint. Apollo plans to assemble the reactor and steam generator in a factory rather than at the site. Halimi projects generating costs near 3 cents per kilowatt hour and stated the target plainly: "Our target is to beat natural gas."
The approach draws on research from MIT.
Source: TechCrunch - https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/20/apollo-atomics-wants-to-make-nuclear-power-cheaper-by-shrinking-an-overlooked-part/