It's open season in the nuclear industry for going public, and this week's episode features newcleo, a European lead-cooled reactor developer.
The Paris-based developer of lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) and closed-cycle MOX fuel announced it will merge with NewHold Investment Corp III (ticker NHIC) in a deal valuing the company at roughly $2.4 billion.
A $220 million oversubscribed PIPE at $10 per share plus up to $209 million from the SPAC trust should deliver as much as $429 million in gross proceeds before redemptions and fees. The combined entity expects to list on Nasdaq under ticker NWCL in the second half of 2026.
Hopefully their transition to public markets doesn't follow the same path as microreactor developer Hadron Energy…
Founded by Stefano Buono (the man who took Advanced Accelerator Applications public on Nasdaq in 2015 and sold it to Novartis for $3.9 billion in 2018), Newcleo has already raised approximately $780 million privately across Europe. It generated roughly $80 million in revenue last year from its vertically integrated supply-chain subsidiaries while building a 900-plus employee team across seven countries and 16 offices.
The technology: Newcleo’s 200 MW (electric) reactor uses liquid lead coolant. The company highlights that lead is cheap, high-boiling, and chemically inert with water and air. The lead is paired with proprietary MOX fuel (a mixture of uranium and plutonium) fabricated from reprocessed nuclear waste.
Their target for commercial fuel manufacturing is 2031, and they hold a pipeline of 9.2 GW of advanced commercial opportunities, including a state-backed Slovak project for up to four 200 MWe units.
As we recently covered, Oklo was selected by the Department of Energy for advanced negotiations under the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program; one of five firms tapped to convert up to 20 metric tons of Cold War-era weapons plutonium into usable reactor fuel. Newcleo is Oklo’s fuel-cycle partner on the deal, supplying European MOX expertise and potential project capital.
The two companies already signed a strategic partnership last October that contemplates up to $2 billion in Newcleo-affiliated investment into U.S. advanced fuel fabrication infrastructure, alongside Sweden’s Blykalla.