Project Omega
Recycling used nuclear fuel into long-duration power sources and materials for advanced reactors.
Website: https://www.projectomega.com/
Cover Block
From the public record
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Project Omega |
| Tagline | Recycling used nuclear fuel into long-duration power sources and materials for advanced reactors. [Project Omega, retrieved 2026] |
| Headquarters | Newport, United States [NEI Magazine, February 2026] |
| Founded | 2025 [NEI Magazine, February 2026] |
| Stage | Series A [TechFundingNews, November 2026] |
| Business Model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry | Deeptech |
| Technology | Hardware |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder [NEI Magazine, February 2026] |
| Funding Label | $50M+ |
| Total Disclosed Funding | $92,000,000 [TechFundingNews, November 2026] |
Links
From the public record
- Website: https://www.projectomega.com/
The Short Version
PUBLIC Project Omega is a 2025-founded nuclear recycling startup building processes to turn used nuclear fuel into long-duration power sources and recovered materials for advanced reactors, and it merits attention now because it has moved quickly from stealth to a $92 million disclosed funding base while securing early government-backed validation signals [NEI Magazine, February 2026] [TechFundingNews, November 2026] [Defense One, July 2026]. The company’s pitch is unusually specific for a young deeptech business: use non-aqueous pyroprocessing, a molten-salt electrochemical approach, to recover isotopes and nuclear materials from spent fuel without separating pure plutonium, with an initial commercial wedge in radioisotope power systems designed for decades-long operation in remote or mission-critical settings [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026] [iHeart] [ANS / Nuclear Newswire, April 2026].
The founding story is straightforward in public sources. Dr. Stafford Sheehan, identified as founder and CEO, previously co-founded Air Company and served as its CTO, bringing a background in electrochemistry, catalysis, and commercialization of chemical process technologies rather than a conventional nuclear utility pedigree [NEI Magazine, February 2026] [TechFundingNews, November 2026] [American Nuclear Society, February 2026]. That background does not by itself de-risk nuclear scale-up, but it does fit the company’s process-engineering problem set and helps explain why investors appear to be backing the technical platform as much as the end product [TechCrunch, April 2022] [Bloomberg, January 2024].
On financing, the public record shows a $12 million seed in February 2026 led by Starship Ventures and an $80 million Series A in November 2026 led by B Capital, for roughly $92 million disclosed to date, with additional named backers including Mantis Ventures, Buckley Ventures, Decisive Point, Slow Ventures, noa VC, and 645 Ventures [Deep Tech Week] [TechFundingNews, November 2026]. The business model appears to center on direct contractual relationships with government and commercial counterparties, which is consistent with the company’s early traction profile: a reported $3.37 million contract award for a proof-of-concept radioisotope power device, an approximately $2 million ARPA-E CURIE contract tied to Idaho National Laboratory, and partnerships touching Charter Space, INL, and PNNL [Defense One, July 2026] [BusinessModelAnalyst.com] [BusinessWire, October 2026] [EnergyTech].
What matters over the next 12 to 18 months is less the ambition of the thesis than the conversion of technical credibility into repeatable execution. Investors should watch for evidence that Project Omega can move from lab and contract milestones to demonstrated product performance, clearer regulatory and scale-up pathways, and eventually named commercial adoption beyond government-linked programs, because today’s public traction still rests more on partnerships and awards than on disclosed customer deployments or revenue [Forbes, February 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [BusinessModelAnalyst.com].
Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on a mix of independent reporting, trade press, and company-adjacent disclosures; core facts on founder, funding, and technical approach are corroborated, while some traction details remain single-source or company-linked.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Series A |
| Business Model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry / Vertical | Deeptech |
| Technology Type | Hardware |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder |
| Funding | $50M+ (total disclosed ~$92,000,000) |
The Company in Brief
PUBLIC
Project Omega presents as a very new nuclear-technology company with an unusually large financing profile for its age. The company says it was founded in 2025 and lists Newport, Rhode Island as its headquarters on its website, with additional offices in Hailey, Idaho and a cold lab in Fall River, Massachusetts [Project Omega, retrieved 2026].
The public record that fits this section is narrow but clear enough on sequence. Project Omega emerged publicly in early 2026 around a spent-fuel recycling thesis, then disclosed a $12 million seed round in February 2026 led by Starship Ventures, followed by an $80 million Series A in November 2026 led by B Capital [Project Omega, retrieved 2026]. Across those announcements, the company has consistently described its mission as recycling used nuclear fuel into long-duration power sources and recovered nuclear materials, with early emphasis on radioisotope power systems [Project Omega, retrieved 2026].
A legal entity name was not established in the cited company materials reviewed for this section. On the company website, Stafford Sheehan is identified as founder and the operating footprint spans Rhode Island, Idaho, and Massachusetts, which matters because the business is positioning itself as both a process-technology developer and an applied nuclear hardware company from inception [Project Omega, retrieved 2026].
Unconfirmed -- This section relies primarily on company website disclosures, with no Crunchbase or state filing evidence used here.
What They Have Built
Mixed sourcing Project Omega is building around a fairly specific technical claim, not a broad climate or energy narrative. Public materials describe a non-aqueous pyroprocessing system, a molten-salt electrochemical approach intended to recover useful isotopes and materials from used nuclear fuel without separating pure plutonium [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026]. The company frames that platform as the basis for two outputs: recovered materials for advanced nuclear applications and long-duration power sources derived from isotopes extracted from spent fuel [Project Omega, retrieved 2026] [B Capital, retrieved 2026].
The near-term product appears narrower than the full refinery ambition. In interviews and company materials, Project Omega points to compact radioisotope power systems, including betavoltaic systems using strontium-90, and describes them as power sources that can operate for decades without sunlight, recharging, refueling, or regular human access [iHeart, retrieved 2026] [Project Omega, retrieved 2026]. That product framing is consistent with the company’s publicly disclosed government work: a $3.37 million contract award for a proof-of-concept radioisotope power device and a separate ARPA-E-backed effort with Idaho National Laboratory to validate its molten-salt process at kilogram scale [Defense One, July 2026] [BusinessModelAnalyst.com, retrieved 2026].
The technical evidence in public is still early, but it is more concrete than a concept-stage materials story. Project Omega has said it operates offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Hailey, Idaho, along with a cold lab in Fall River, Massachusetts, while press coverage also places the company in collaborations involving Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory [Project Omega, retrieved 2026] [EnergyTech, retrieved 2026] [Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business, retrieved 2026]. What remains unproven in public is performance at commercial scale: the reviewed sources support lab validation efforts and prototype-oriented contracts, but they do not establish a deployed product, third-party operating data, or a commercial production facility [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Forbes, February 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- Core product descriptions are corroborated across company materials, trade press, and investor commentary, but several technical and program details remain company-led or single-source.
Market Size and Demand
From the public record This market matters now because Project Omega sits at the intersection of three areas that have each moved up the policy and procurement stack in the U.S.: spent-fuel management, domestic nuclear supply chains, and persistent off-grid power for defense and space applications [American Nuclear Society, February 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [BusinessWire, October 2026].
The available public record does not support a clean TAM, SAM, and SOM build for Project Omega itself, and there is no named third-party market report in the source set that sizes nuclear-fuel recycling or radioisotope power in a way that can be mapped directly to the company. What is clearer is the problem statement the company is selling into: a U.S. inventory of used nuclear fuel that the company describes as nearly 100,000 metric tons, positioned as a potential domestic feedstock for power isotopes and reactor materials [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026]. That framing matters because it shifts the category from waste handling alone to a combined materials-recovery and power-systems market, with revenue opportunity tied not just to disposal economics but also to strategic supply of isotopes and advanced-reactor inputs [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026] [Project Omega].
Demand signals in the public sources are concentrated in government-linked applications rather than broad commercial adoption. The named target users include defense customers, intelligence and space programs, autonomous systems, communications infrastructure, undersea platforms, and other remote or mission-critical environments where replacing or recharging a power source is either costly or operationally impossible [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [BusinessWire, October 2026]. That is a narrower market than general grid storage, but it is also one where performance requirements can justify unusually high cost per watt if endurance, resilience, and maintenance-free operation are credible [iHeart] [Forbes, February 2026].
The demand tailwinds that surface most clearly are policy and procurement related. Project Omega has been linked publicly to ARPA-E programs, Idaho National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and a Department of Defense contract process tied to radioisotope generators, which suggests that early market formation may be driven by public-sector validation and mission demand before any large-scale commercial rollout [EnergyTech] [Yahoo Finance] [Forbes, February 2026] [Defense One, July 2026]. The company also announced a partnership with Charter Space around resilient spacecraft, which supports the view that space systems are an adjacent early-adoption market for long-duration nuclear-derived power sources [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Morningstar, October 2026].
| Market lens | Public sizing or demand claim | Relevance to Project Omega |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. used nuclear fuel feedstock | Nearly 100,000 metric tons, as described by the company | Establishes the raw-material base behind the recycling thesis, though it is a feedstock figure rather than a revenue market size [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] |
| Defense and intelligence power systems | Target users include government and defense customers, intelligence programs, undersea and remote operations | Supports a procurement-led wedge where long life and limited service access matter more than commodity pricing [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] |
| Spacecraft power and resilience | Charter Space partnership focused on resilient spacecraft using long-duration power systems | Points to an adjacent market where radiation tolerance, mission duration, and recovery economics can matter materially [BusinessWire, October 2026] |
| Advanced reactor materials | Recovered materials intended for advanced-reactor and nuclear applications | Suggests a second market path beyond power devices, but public evidence is still conceptual rather than commercial [iHeart] [B Capital] |
The table shows a market defined more by strategic use cases than by a conventional software-style addressable-spend model. For now, the strongest public evidence supports a bottoms-up view centered on government and space demand, with the larger recycling and reactor-materials opportunity still earlier in its commercialization path.
Adjacent and substitute markets help explain both the opportunity and the constraint set. On one side, Project Omega is adjacent to the broader nuclear services stack that includes spent-fuel management, fuel-cycle infrastructure, isotope production, and advanced-reactor supply chains [American Nuclear Society, February 2026] [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026]. On the other, its near-term power products compete indirectly with alternatives such as batteries, solar-plus-storage, fuel cells, and other remote-power systems, especially in use cases where regulatory acceptance of radioisotope systems could lengthen deployment cycles [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Forbes, February 2026].
The macro and regulatory picture is supportive in principle but demanding in execution. Public funding programs and national-lab partnerships indicate that the U.S. government is willing to underwrite early technical validation in closed-fuel-cycle and radioisotope-power work [EnergyTech] [Defense One, July 2026]. Still, the company operates in categories where licensing, materials handling, transport, and customer qualification can each become pacing items, which means favorable policy interest does not automatically translate into short sales cycles or rapid revenue conversion [American Nuclear Society, February 2026] [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- Market framing is supported by named public sources, but direct third-party TAM data is absent and several demand claims rely on company-linked or partnership-driven disclosures.
Who Else Is Fighting for This
MIXED Project Omega is not competing in a single clean market so much as trying to sit at the intersection of nuclear waste processing, isotope recovery, and long-duration off-grid power, which means its real alternatives are a mix of established institutions and adjacent technical substitutes rather than a well-populated startup peer set [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [Project Omega].
The first competitive lane is spent-fuel recycling and fuel-cycle infrastructure. Here, the closest reference points in public materials are not named venture-backed rivals but the national-laboratory and government ecosystem that already controls much of the underlying research, facilities, and regulatory interface, including Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, both of which are described as collaborators in Project Omega's work [EnergyTech] [iHeart] [Yahoo Finance]. That matters because the company is trying to commercialize a molten-salt electrochemical process for used nuclear fuel, a category where technical credibility and facility access can matter more than software-style speed [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026] [ANS / Nuclear Newswire, April 2026]. The second lane is radioisotope power, where alternatives include existing government-backed radioisotope programs and mission architectures that avoid isotope power altogether through solar, batteries, or more frequent servicing. The third lane is advanced-reactor materials supply, where Project Omega's pitch rests on recovering useful isotopes and fuel-cycle materials from spent fuel, but the public record here still reads more as platform intent than commercial position [Project Omega] [B Capital].
The company's edge today appears to be access and narrative fit rather than proven market control. On the access side, Project Omega has disclosed or been reported to have a $3.37 million defense-related contract for radioisotope power systems, an ARPA-E-supported effort with Idaho National Laboratory, work with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and a partnership with Charter Space announced in October 2026 [Defense One, July 2026] [EnergyTech] [Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business] [BusinessWire, October 2026]. Those relationships can create a meaningful moat if they convert into test infrastructure, procurement pathways, and regulatory learning that are hard for later entrants to replicate quickly. The caution is that this edge is still perishable. Government relationships validate relevance, but they do not by themselves establish manufacturing readiness, recurring demand, or exclusion of other technical approaches [BusinessModelAnalyst.com] [Forbes, February 2026].
Project Omega is most exposed where the problem moves from scientific possibility to program execution. Incumbent public-sector actors, especially national laboratories and established federal programs, still hold the deepest expertise, facilities, and contracting position in nuclear recycling and isotope systems [EnergyTech] [Yahoo Finance] [Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business]. Adjacent substitutes also remain credible in many target use cases. If a remote defense or space application can be served with improved batteries, solar plus storage, or a conventional logistics loop, then a radioisotope system must clear a much higher bar on safety, licensing, and operational need before it wins the slot [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026]. Public sources also do not yet establish a named commercial end customer, a field deployment, or revenue-bearing customer contract, which leaves the company vulnerable to better-capitalized organizations that already own procurement channels [Forbes, February 2026] [BusinessWire, October 2026].
The most plausible 18-month scenario is that the competitive field stays narrow and contract-led rather than opening into a broad commercial race. Project Omega is the likely winner if government and space customers increasingly prioritize persistent power in places where solar, maintenance access, or refueling are poor fits, because its near-term product story is already tailored to those edge cases and its public partnerships line up with that route to market [iHeart] [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026]. The likely loser if that thesis slips is not a named startup rival from the public record, but the category of venture-backed independent recyclers trying to build around spent-fuel commercialization before procurement and regulatory pathways mature. In that case, the practical winners would be incumbent government-led programs and conventional power substitutes that can satisfy mission requirements with fewer licensing and supply-chain hurdles [EnergyTech] [Forbes, February 2026] [Yahoo Finance].
Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on corroborated public reporting for Project Omega's partnerships, contracts, and positioning, but the absence of named startup competitors in the source set limits direct like-for-like comparison.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If Project Omega executes, the prize is not a niche power-device business but a new domestic infrastructure layer for turning spent nuclear fuel into both long-duration power sources and reactor-relevant materials, a position that could sit upstream of several strategic markets at once [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [Project Omega] [B Capital].
The headline opportunity is straightforward even if the technical path is not: become the first scaled U.S. platform that converts used nuclear fuel into commercial radioisotope power systems and recovered nuclear materials without separating pure plutonium, then sell into buyers that already pay for persistence, resilience, and sovereign supply [Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026] [ANS / Nuclear Newswire, April 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026]. That outcome looks reachable, not merely aspirational, because the company has already assembled some of the ingredients that these businesses usually spend years trying to secure: disclosed capital of $92 million across seed and Series A, an ARPA-E-linked validation path with Idaho National Laboratory, a reported $3.37 million defense-related contract award for a proof-of-concept radioisotope power device, and a public partnership with Charter Space around resilient spacecraft power systems [TechFundingNews, November 2026] [EnergyTech] [Defense One, July 2026] [BusinessWire, October 2026]. None of that proves scale or product-market fit, but it does suggest the company is being pulled toward real procurement and validation channels rather than building in isolation.
The upside branches into a few distinct paths, and the evidence supports more than one. The table below lays out the most plausible routes to outsized scale on the current public record.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defense power incumbent | Project Omega turns its radioisotope power systems into a standard option for defense, intelligence, and remote government missions where maintenance is costly or impossible | Conversion of the reported DoD work into repeat procurement, plus successful proof-of-concept delivery under the $3.37 million contract award [Forbes, February 2026] [Defense One, July 2026] | The company already targets government and defense buyers, and public reporting ties it to government and intelligence-community use cases for radioisotope generators [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [Forbes, February 2026] |
| Space resilience supplier | Project Omega becomes a specialist supplier of long-duration spacecraft power for missions that value resilience over conventional battery replacement cycles | Expansion of the Charter Space partnership into qualification programs or mission-specific deployments [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Morningstar, October 2026] | The Charter Space announcement is specific about resilient spacecraft and mission-risk reduction, which is a concrete foothold rather than a general statement of interest [BusinessWire, October 2026] [Morningstar, October 2026] |
| Nuclear materials platform | Project Omega uses the same pyroprocessing base to move beyond power systems and become a supplier of recovered isotopes and reactor feedstock for advanced nuclear applications | Successful kilogram-scale validation with Idaho National Laboratory under the reported ARPA-E CURIE contract, followed by broader commercialization of recovered materials [BusinessModelAnalyst.com] [EnergyTech] [B Capital] | The Series A rationale from B Capital explicitly references two product lines, recovered materials and long-duration power systems, which suggests management and investors are already framing this as a platform rather than a single-device company [B Capital] [TechFundingNews, November 2026] |
What compounding looks like here is less a software-style network effect than a capability flywheel. If Project Omega can validate its molten-salt recycling process with national-lab partners, that makes defense and space power products more credible; if those products win procurement and mission partnerships, they create demand signals and operating proof for the broader refinery platform; if the refinery platform matures, the company gains a larger inventory of usable isotopes and materials that can support additional product lines in power, advanced reactors, and commercial or scientific applications [ANS / Nuclear Newswire, April 2026] [EnergyTech] [B Capital] [iHeart]. Public evidence suggests the first turns of that flywheel may already be starting: ARPA-E and Idaho National Laboratory are tied to process validation, PNNL has been identified in public reporting as a collaborator, and Charter Space adds an application-layer partner that could help translate technical capability into mission use [EnergyTech] [Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business] [BusinessWire, October 2026].
The size of the win is difficult to pin down from public comparables because the company sits across nuclear services, specialty materials, and power systems, and the source set here does not include a clean public peer or third-party market model. The more defensible way to frame the upside is scenario-based. If the company were to become a meaningful supplier of long-duration power systems for defense and space while also establishing a credible recovered-materials business, it could support a multi-billion-dollar enterprise value over time (scenario, not a forecast), because it would control a scarce process capability tied to national-security budgets, nuclear-supply-chain resilience, and products with long replacement cycles [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] [B Capital] [BusinessWire, October 2026]. That is still a conditional case, and it depends on technical validation, regulatory execution, and procurement conversion. But the reason the opportunity merits attention is simple: very few early-stage companies are trying to convert a national waste liability into a domestic supply asset with both government demand signals and a disclosed capital base behind the attempt [TechFundingNews, November 2026] [Defense One, July 2026] [Las Vegas Sun, November 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- Section relies on a mix of independent reporting and company- or investor-linked sources; funding and partnership facts are corroborated, while product and market-scope claims are only partially independently verified.
Sources
From the public record
[Project Omega, retrieved 2026] Project Omega | https://www.projectomega.com/
[NEI Magazine, February 2026] Project Omega to recycle SNF | https://www.neimagazine.com/news/project-omega-to-recycle-snf/
[TechFundingNews, November 2026] Project Omega raises $80M from B Capital to turn America’s used nuclear fuel into power | https://techfundingnews.com/project-omega-raises-80m-from-b-capital-to-turn-americas-used-nuclear-fuel-into-power/
[Defense One, July 2026] Project Omega wins contract to build radioisotope power system proof of concept | https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2026/07/project-omega-wins-contract-build-radioisotope-power-system-proof-concept/411787/
[Nuclear Engineering International, November 2026] Project Omega targets fuel reuse | https://www.neimagazine.com/news/project-omega-targets-fuel-reuse/
[iHeart] Project Omega, Staff Sheehan | https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-hope-dose-85820177/episode/project-omega-staff-sheehan-336817051/
[ANS / Nuclear Newswire, April 2026] Project Omega and Idaho National Laboratory collaborate to advance used nuclear fuel recycling technology | https://www.ans.org/news/article-7876/project-omega-and-idaho-national-laboratory-collaborate-to-advance-used-nuclear-fuel-recycling-technology/
[American Nuclear Society, February 2026] Project Omega emerges from stealth mode with plans to recycle US spent fuel | https://www.ans.org/news/article-7752/project-omega-emerges-from-stealth-mode-with-plans-to-recycle-us-spent-fuel/
[TechCrunch, April 2022] Air Company makes vodka out of thin air to save the planet | https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/19/co2-to-alcohol/amp
[Bloomberg, January 2024] H&M, Zara, Lululemon Among Companies Using Captured CO2 in Products | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-16/h-m-zara-lululemon-among-companies-using-captured-co2-in-products?srnd=undefined
[Deep Tech Week] Project Omega | Deep Tech Week | https://www.deep-tech-week.com/organizations/project-omega
[BusinessWire, October 2026] Charter Space and Project Omega Partner for Resilient Spacecraft with Long-Duration Power Systems | https://businesswire.com/news/home/20261020303461/en/Charter-Space-and-Project-Omega-Partner-for-Resilient-Spacecraft-with-Long-Duration-Power-Systems
[BusinessModelAnalyst.com] Project Omega | https://businessmodelanalyst.com/project-omega/
[Forbes, February 2026] This Startup Wants To Turn America’s Nuclear Waste Into Power | https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2026/02/10/this-project-omega-startup-staff-sheehan-nuclear-waste-fuel-power
[Las Vegas Sun, November 2026] Project Omega Raises $80 Million to Build Nuclear Refineries for the Next Industrial Revolution | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2026/nov/09/project-omega-raises-80-million-to-build-nuclear-r/
[B Capital, retrieved 2026] Why We Invested in Project Omega | https://b.capital/why-we-invested-in-project-omega/
[EnergyTech] Nuclear startup Project Omega raises $80M in Series A round to advance closed fuel cycle repurposing used fuel | https://www.energytech.com/next-gen-nuclear/news/55417760/nuclear-startup-project-omega-raises-80m-in-series-a-round-to-advance-closed-fuel-cycle-repurposing-used-fuel
[Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business] Pacific Northwest National Laboratory partners with Rhode Island startup to recycle spent nuclear fuel | https://www.tricitiesbusinessnews.com/articles/pnnl-project-omega-spent-nuclear-fuel
[Yahoo Finance] Project Omega and Idaho National Laboratory collaborate to advance used nuclear fuel recycling technology | https://finance.yahoo.com/news/project-omega-idaho-national-laboratory-130000000.html
[Morningstar, October 2026] Charter Space and Project Omega Partner for Resilient Spacecraft with Long-Duration Power Systems | https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20261020303461/charter-space-and-project-omega-partner-for-resilient-spacecraft-with-long-duration-power-systems
Articles about Project Omega
- Project Omega's $80 Million Bet Is on a Battery That Never Dies — The nuclear recycling startup, led by a former carbon-to-fuel chemist, is building a refinery for spent fuel to power remote defense and space missions.