While tech giants chase nuclear power for their AI data centers, one startup is flipping the script. Nuclearn just raised $10.5 million to bring artificial intelligence into the nuclear industry itself, automating the mountains of routine paperwork that keep reactors running safely. The Phoenix-born company already has its AI tools deployed across 65+ nuclear reactors worldwide.
The nuclear renaissance has a new player, and it's not another reactor startup. Nuclearn is betting that the industry's biggest bottleneck isn't uranium or cooling systems - it's paperwork. The company just closed a $10.5 million Series A round led by Blue Bear Capital, with participation from AZ-VC, Nucleation Capital, and SJF Ventures, to scale its AI-powered documentation platform across the global nuclear fleet.
The timing couldn't be better. While Meta, Google, and Microsoft are all cutting deals with nuclear operators to power their AI ambitions, the industry itself is cautiously embracing artificial intelligence from the inside out. "No one is proposing to let an AI run a reactor, but power companies are increasingly interested in the technology's potential to tighten things up on the business side," Nuclearn co-founder and CEO Bradley Fox told TechCrunch.
Fox and co-founder Jerrold Vincent know nuclear inside and out. Both worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix, where they started experimenting with data science tools to automate repetitive tasks. What began as internal efficiency projects during the COVID pandemic quickly caught the attention of other reactor operators. "Can you help us do the same thing you're doing for Palo Verde but for my plant?" became a common refrain, Fox explained to TechCrunch.
That informal interest sparked the idea for a proper startup. "We both were kind of bored after work," Fox admitted. "We're like, hey, let's work on a startup." The result is a platform that's now deployed across more than 65 nuclear reactors worldwide, handling everything from routine compliance documentation to operational reports.
Nuclearn's approach is deliberately conservative, reflecting the nuclear industry's deep-rooted safety culture. The company has developed AI models specifically trained on nuclear industry terminology and regulatory language. The software can generate routine documentation that human operators then review and approve - think of it as a highly specialized writing assistant rather than an autonomous decision-maker.
