US-based fusion and isotopes company SHINE, with ambitions to expand into nuclear fuel recycling, and France-based nuclear start-up newcleo have agreed to collaborate on advancing innovative technologies for the recycling of used nuclear fuel.
The companies said they will assess how SHINE could supply newcleo with materials from the used nuclear fuel of traditional reactors to manufacture mixed oxide (mox) fuel, and how SHINE could recycle used fuel from newcleo’s planned reactors. They also intend to jointly pursue US federal funding opportunities and explore additional opportunities for collaboration in both the US and European Union.
SHINE Technologies is in the technical scoping stage for a commercial nuclear recycling pilot plant. Newcleo is navigating regulatory pre-applications and site acquisition for planned mox fuel manufacturing facilities in both Europe and the US to support its planned lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) facilities, currently in the design stage.
The agreement comes as governments and industry on both sides of the Atlantic sharpen their focus on closing the nuclear fuel cycle to draw down decades of accumulated used fuel and secure domestic supplies of fissile material for the next generation of reactors.
“Closing the fuel cycle will require deep, industry-wide collaboration that brings together expertise from across the nuclear fuel supply chain. Today marks an important step in that direction, combining SHINE’s recycling capabilities with newcleo’s advanced fuel manufacturing and reactor technologies,” said newcleo founder and CEO Stefano Buono.
“Recycling spent nuclear fuel solves two problems at once. It addresses decades of accumulated waste and removes the fuel supply constraint on expanding the reactor fleet,” noted Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE. “Working with newcleo connects our capabilities directly to reactors designed to run on recycled fuel. That closed fuel cycle effectively makes nuclear energy renewable and fundamentally changes its economics.”
Shine, founded in 2010 by Dr Gregory Piefer, is headquartered in Janesville, Wisconsin. The company is following a four-phase roadmap – fusion technology, medical isotope production, fuel recycling and fusion power generation. Each phase targets a higher-value commercial market to fund the R&D of the next step
SHINE was founded on technology from Phoenix Nuclear Labs, a particle accelerator company founded by Piefer in 2005. This technology uses a beam-target fusion system rather than the magnetic or inertial confinement methods, which focuses on generating a steady, high-flux stream of neutrons to drive secondary nuclear reactions. A low-energy electrostatic particle accelerator accelerates a high-current beam of deuterium ions, which strikes a tritium gas target. The resulting deuterium-tritium fusion reactions release high-energy neutrons. Strong electric fields contain the plasma.
Using this technology, the company sold non-destructive neutron imaging and radiation-effects testing services to aerospace and defence sectors. In 2019, SHINE and Phoenix set a world record for the strongest sustained nuclear fusion reaction in a steady-state system, hitting 46 trillion neutrons per second.
Phase 2 began in 2010 with technology for the production of medical radioisotopes. The Cassiopeia facility at Janesville was launched in 2024 using advanced radiochemistry and chemical processing to produce high-purity lutetium-177 without traditional nuclear reactors. In 2019 construction of the adjacent Chrysalis facility began, slated to be the world’s largest diagnostic isotope factory. It will house fusion-based neutron generators to create isotopes such as molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) using nuclear fusion.
In Phase 3, SHINE’s long-term business plan states that the revenue, regulatory experience, and chemical processing skills developed from making medical isotopes will fund expansion into reprocessing used nuclear fuel. To make isotopes, SHINE routinely dissolves uranium, uses neutrons to alter elements, and separates the results. The company argues that recycling used fuel uses the same chemistry, just in a different order of operations. SHINE says it is developing the technology to recycle used nuclear fuel, targeting a commercial pilot to draw down the 90,000 tonnes of used fuel that have accumulated in the US.
The ultimate goal (Phase 4) is to generate electricity from nuclear fusion. SHINE plans to attempt utility-scale energy only after their waste recycling business generates enough capital to pay for it. To date, SHINE has operated five nuclear-licensed sites, achieved landmark safety clearances from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and raised over $1bn in total funding from investors.
SHINE has also benefitted from Department of Energy (DOE) and other federal funding. In April, DOE’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) issued a conditional commitment for a loan of up to $263m to SHINE to support the construction of Chrysalis. In July 2024, SHINE was awarded $32m from the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) in addition an existing DOE/NNSA’s cooperative agreement.
Earlier in June, SHINE joined a consortium led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and funded under DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) CURIE programme. CURIE stands for Converting UNF (Used Nuclear Fuel) Radioisotopes Into Energy. It is a government-funded initiative to help build a Model for the Assessment of Reprocessing and Recycle with Innovative Execution (MARIE). This is the optimisation tool the US nuclear industry could use to evaluate and underwrite the first commercial used fuel recycling facilities.
SHINE’s role in the consortium covers security, regulatory, and commercial questions. These include:
- Safeguards-by-design – translating SHINE’s experience licensing Chrysalis, its medical isotope production facility, into design considerations for a future recycling facility.
- Licensing path – mapping what drives licensing costs for a US recycling facility, and how to manage them.
- Isotope market potential – applying SHINE’s experience as a commercial isotope producer to assess the markets for valuable isotopes recoverable from used fuel.
Newcleo was founded by Stefano Buono in 2021 in the UK following the $3.9bn sale of his previous venture, nuclear medicine company Advanced Accelerator Applications, to Novartis. Newcleo moved its headquarters to France in 2024, saying this reflected its “unwavering focus on growing its European presence and delivering its ambitious timelines and strategic projects”. These included development of a precursor reactor in Italy by 2026; establishment of mox manufacturing plant in France by 2030; construction of a prototype reactor in France by 2031; and delivery of commercial reactors starting from 2033.
Earlier in June, newcleo announced the establishment of its US headquarters in New York City to lead its American operations and regulatory affairs. In March, newcleo had initiated its formal pre-application engagement with NRC to lay the groundwork for a future mox fuel fabrication facility. In May, newcleo announced a business combination with NewHold Investment Corp III to go public on the Nasdaq exchange in order to fund and accelerate its physical deployment across the US.
Since its launch in 2021, newcleo has focused primarily on agreements, collaborations, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions rather than in house technology development. It has raised over $780m from institutional and individual investors and has seen an increasing number of European players joining newcleo’s growing funding base, which to date counts over 750 shareholders. Its business now counts over 100 partnerships, with more than 900 employees based in 19 locations across France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, and Slovakia, including three manufacturing facilities.
With respect to its planned mox facility in France, newcleo has received approval to acquire a plot of land in the Nogent-sur-Seine area (Aube region) to host the facility. The project is undergoing a mandatory public debate throughout 2026. Applications for construction authorisation will be submitted by the end of 2026, with the aim of establishing a fuel assembly testing facility by 2030 to support its first operational lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) by 2032. In the US it is collaborating with advanced reactor developer Oklo to deploy mox fuel manufacturing infrastructure.
To go from an undeveloped plot of land in northeastern France to an operating mox plant by 2030 is an extraordinarily compressed timeline for Europe. Newcleo is attempting to design, license, and prepare for construction simultaneously. They have already spent 18 months in technical discussions with French regulators before securing the land. Furthermore, they are only aiming for a pilot production line by 2030, pushing full commercial operation out to 2040. Newcleo’s newly acquired land is currently locked in a mandatory public debate process throughout 2026. If local opposition or regulatory friction slows them down, that 2030 date will easily slip.
It is indicative that in newcleo’s press release on the arrangement with Shine – the latest in a very long line of such arrangements – the advisory and forward looking statement notes were almost three times longer than the project information. These warned that risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties “include, but are not limited to” 20 factors. For example:
“(9) risks related to newcleo’s early stage of development, limited operating history and expected need for substantial additional capital to develop, license, construct and commercialize its technologies and facilities; (10) risks related to the development, demonstration, licensing and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies, including newcleo’s lead-cooled fast reactor technology and mixed-oxide fuel strategy; (11) risks related to technical performance, engineering, manufacturing, construction, supply chain, fuel availability, cost estimates, project delays, cost overruns, corrosion, materials performance, safety, reliability and other development or operational challenges; (12) risks related to obtaining, maintaining or complying with required regulatory approvals, permits, authorisations, licences and export control approvals.”
Readers were cautioned “not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and none of the parties or any of their representatives assumes any obligation or intends to update or revise these forward-looking statements, each of which is made only as of the date of this communication.”
