Our investment in Thorizon

Nuclear power generates around 10% of all electricity in the world - and does this without emitting greenhouse gasses. To date the use of nuclear power has reduced CO2 emissions by over 60 gigatons. The 450 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide provide reliable ‘baseload energy’ to the grid. 

Still - nuclear energy is controversial. Mostly because it produces long-lived nuclear waste which, although limited in quantity, remains radioactive for over 100,000 years. Also, nuclear reactors have shown to be at risk of meltdown - where a runaway reaction emits radioactive material in the environment. 

What if we could find a way to get rid of long-lived nuclear waste and also eliminate the risk of meltdown? That is exactly what the team of Thorizon is after. As a recent spin-off from nuclear research institute NRG, Thorizon is developing a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) which uses long-lived nuclear waste as fuel to produce CO2 free energy. 

Conventional reactors use solid rods as fissile material, which can create a meltdown reaction if not properly cooled. By using molten fissile material and through clever design, the reactor of Thorizon poses no risk of any meltdown or runaway nuclear reaction. 

Thorizon’s design allows for much smaller and modular reactors, opening more applications of nuclear energy. 

Thorizon is not the first or only company working on MSR technology. But the design is so ingenious that Orano, the global leader in nuclear waste recycling, decided to partner with Thorizon. 

We strongly believe that founders Sander de Groot and Lucas Pool have the technical expertise and skills to make the vision of Thorizon a reality. Positron Ventures quietly led a €750k pre-seed round in 2021 and we are proud to back Thorizon again as co-lead investor in a €12.5m seed round.