Nuclear Turbines

Investor: IQ Capital

Manchester-based deeptech spinout Nuclear Turbines has officially emerged from stealth, securing a £15 million ($19.5 million) foundational funding round led by deeptech specialist venture firm IQ Capital. Summary of transaction details: Value: £15 million ($19.5 million / €17.5 million) Foundational Round. Sector: Industrials & Energy / Nuclear / CleanTech. Advisor / Executive Appointments: Spun out from BAE Systems' Launchpad initiative in partnership with Empirical Ventures' venture studio. Concurrently, Lauren Dickerson (former Strategy Director at British Gas parent Centrica) has joined as Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer. Key Entities: Target: Nuclear Turbines Limited; Lead Investor: IQ Capital; Co-Investors: Rhapsody Venture Partners, Zero Carbon Capital, and Empirical Ventures; Key Founders: Jeremy Owston (CEO & Co-Founder, ex-BAE Systems) and Prof. Tim Abram (Co-Founder & Chair in Nuclear Fuel Technology at the University of Manchester). Location: Manchester, North West, UK. Note: Founded by former BAE Systems principal engineer Jeremy Owston and world-renowned nuclear fuel authority Professor Tim Abram, Nuclear Turbines is completely inverting traditional nuclear power station architecture. Rather than designing complex nuclear reactors first and subsequently attempting to capture their thermal output via massive, expensive steam turbine islands, Nuclear Turbines started with the cheapest known thermodynamic power cycle—high-temperature gas turbines derived from jet engines and industrial gas plants—and engineered a compact nuclear heat source to match. By ditching water boilers and steam infrastructure entirely, the company eliminates the heavy capital expenditure, sprawling physical footprints, and multi-billion-pound site construction costs that plague conventional reactors and early Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Their ultra-compact, high-temperature gas-turbine units are small enough to sit directly "behind the meter" on private industrial land—delivering uninterrupted, zero-carbon baseload electricity and high-grade thermal power to energy-hungry data centers, chemical refineries, and heavy manufacturing sites at an estimated 80% cost reduction compared to traditional nuclear installations. This £15m foundational capital layer will fund team growth, support full-scale reactor core validation, and construct large-scale thermal test rigs as the business moves toward manufacturing its initial nuclear fuel elements.