Dallas, TX, August 26 — Actinide, an precocious materials institution that designs, builds, and operates its ain isotope separation machines, has go the first startup successful history to nutrient high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). The enrichment was performed connected the company's first-generation calutron, which, weeks earlier, was producing Actinide’s flagship commercialized product: enriched ytterbium-176, delivered to Oklo Isotopes.
There is nary end-to-end home proviso concatenation for HALEU-based fuel: the Department of Energy says that astir precocious reactor designs require HALEU, yet location is presently zero disposable from home suppliers. While accepted centrifuge enrichment is capable to nutrient enriched uranium hexafluoride gas, this still must beryllium converted into coagulated shape earlier substance fabrication - a process for which the United States has zero commercialized capacity. The Department of Energy contracted six companies successful 2024 to build retired that deconversion capacity, but Actinide’s exertion bypasses the bottleneck wholly by producing coagulated HALEU directly.
The HALEU was produced successful investigation quantities nether the laboratory-scale removal successful NRC regulations, which carves retired accommodation utilized for experimental purposes only. U.S. rule defines HALEU arsenic uranium containing much than 5 percent but little than 20 percent uranium-235. An independent ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory assayed the produced worldly astatine 15.38% enrichment. This worldly would still request to beryllium fabricated into rods, pellets, aliases particles earlier a reactor could usage it.
“This objection is simply a testament to the powerfulness and elasticity of our technology. A centrifuge works does 1 thing, costs billions, and takes years to guidelines up. Our machines costs a fewer 100 1000 dollars, nutrient worldly wrong months, deploy anywhere, and are capable to beryllium reconfigured successful a matter of days to abstracted various isotopes arsenic they are needed,” said Robert Mendelsohn, co-founder and CTO of Actinide.
Actinide’s first-generation calutron is simply a modern electromagnetic isotope separator that sorts atoms by wide wrong a magnetic field. It builds connected the aforesaid halfway rule utilized successful the Manhattan Project calutrons astatine Oak Ridge’s Y-12, but the resemblance ends there. Modern magnets, vacuum systems, powerfulness electronics, and controls, refined by proprietary trade-secret advances, present the highest productivity of immoderate calutron of its size ever constructed.
The United States built calutrons astatine Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project and continued utilizing immoderate of them to proviso unchangeable isotopes for medicine, manufacture and investigation until 1998. The Department of Energy has since rebuilt national electromagnetic-separation capacity and is expanding it, but the capacity remains concentrated wrong the government. America’s dependence extends to uranium enrichment: successful 2025, 77% of the enrichment services purchased by U.S. civilian reactor owners came from overseas sources, including 26% from Russia, compared pinch 23% from American sources.
“America should not person to inquire different state for the materials that find whether a reactor runs aliases a crab curen gets made,” said Eric Olszewski, co-founder and CEO of Actinide.
The institution is building Fortitude, its second-generation separator. On Actinide's engineering estimates, a azygous Fortitude instrumentality would supply astir half the isotope-separation capacity of the U.S. government's existent electromagnetic fleet.
Actinide was founded successful September 2025 aft 7 years of investigation and prototyping by Mendelsohn. Olszewski began financing the activity earlier the institution was incorporated, moved his family to Dallas successful early 2024 to subordinate Mendelsohn successful the laboratory and invested much than $1 cardinal of his ain capital. Actinide raised an oversubscribed seed information successful March 2026 led by Onto Ventures, pinch information from Neo Ventures, Mana Ventures, Discipulus Ventures, Shor Capital, angel investors Ryan Hiepler, Stephen Cole, and others.
“Whether the exertion is atomic energy, crab medicine aliases quantum computing, the choke constituent is the same: entree to the correct isotope. And almost everyone attacking it is years from producing anything. Eric, Robert and the Actinide squad designed and built their ain separator, shipped worldly to a paying customer, and past made HALEU. They’re rebuilding America's isotope capacity and we’re proud to beryllium connected that travel pinch them." - Tom McQuillen, Onto Ventures
About Actinide
Actinide builds modern calutrons — electromagnetic isotope-separation machines — to nutrient atomically precise materials astatine scale. Using its first-generation calutron, Actinide has produced and sold ytterbium containing much than 95% ytterbium-176 and has enriched earthy uranium into the HALEU scope astatine investigation scale. Actinide is now building Fortitude, its second-generation system, to grow home accumulation of materials required for medicine, atomic energy, and precocious technologies. Founded successful Dallas successful September 2025, the institution is connected a ngo to reshape the early of humanity, atom by atom.
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