Fluxnium Inc., a Los Angeles–based technology company, has raised a $7 million seed round led by Congruent Ventures with participation from Constellation Technology Ventures and Active Impact Investments to further develop and scale technology to extract uranium from seawater.
Uranium from seawater: technology and deployment
Proceeds will fund further development, pilot testing and scale-up of Fluxnium’s platform designed to recover uranium adsorbed in seawater, a critical mineral for the civilian nuclear fuel cycle and defense supply chain. Seawater holds roughly a thousand times more than all currently identified terrestrial deposits of uranium combined, but dissolved uranium exists at very low concentrations.
Fluxnium addresses that challenge with a proprietary high-surface-area fiber, recently developed with a leading U.S. national laboratory, that passively adsorbs uranium as seawater moves past it. The fiber is deployed on longline systems in open water—the same passive marine infrastructure used by seaweed and mussel farms—then retrieved, processed and redeployed.
“The United States imports more than 90% of its uranium supply at a time when nuclear power is increasingly seen as a solution to growing demand for electricity driven by economic growth,” said Jeff Green, chief executive and founder of Fluxnium. “Fluxnium is developing a new domestic and sustainable supply of uranium, passively adsorbed from seawater on proven offshore infrastructure at a cost projected to compete with conventional mining, with no tailings or ground water concerns.”
“With the current uranium market dynamics, there is a new path to making the ocean one of the lowest-cost sources in the world. Congruent is excited to support Fluxnium as it unlocks the ocean’s potential as a major contributor to a diverse and robust domestic nuclear fuel supply chain,” said Kevin Kopczynski, partner at Congruent Ventures.
“We have strong conviction that Jeff and co-founder Jim McDermott, with their prior successes taking hardtech ideas to commercial reality, are the ideal team to seize this opportunity,” said Tom Boddez, general partner at Active Impact Investments.
With accelerating demand for nuclear power that could double within the next 15 years, plant operators are focused on cost-competitive and sustainable fuel supply beyond conventional uranium mining.
Information for this story was provided by Fluxnium.
