Another nuclear company is on its way to the public markets.
Last week, Terrestrial Energy announced its plans to merge with HCM II Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, and list on the NASDAQ under the ticker $IMSR.
- The company expects to generate $280M in gross proceeds from the deal—more than twice its total fundraising of $94M to date.
- $50M of that $280M will come from common stock PIPE commitments; the rest is cash in the SPAC’s trust.
- The company has a pre-money valuation of $925M, and the SPAC expects the value to be upwards of $1B after the public listing.
The company joins fellow nuclear SPAC Oklo ($OKLO) on the public markets, as well as NANO Nuclear Energy ($NNE), which IPO’d last year. Generally speaking, the markets have been kind to the newest nuclear players—Oklo is trading up ~84% over the last year, and NANO Nuclear Energy is up 5x its entry value.
Molten salt: Terrestrial Energy is bringing its integral molten salt reactor tech to the table (hence the ticker symbol). Its reactor design uses molten salt as fuel and coolant alike. It plans to replace the reactor cores every seven years to combat the corrosion inherent in the design.
The keyword for the company, it seems, is “CAPEX-light.” Terrestrial Energy believes it can bring its IMSRs to market at a lower price than its competitors by owning all aspects of the reactor life cycle, from development and installation to reactor decommissioning. It also claims the reactor’s inherent safety, efficiency, and simplicity help keep upfront costs low.
The market so far: As part of its development process, Terrestrial has won awards from the DOE and the Canadian and UK governments, and it has business relationships with Westinghouse, Schneider Electric, and Argonne National Lab, among others. But the IMSR developer is already looking ahead to the market it expects to serve.
“Data center operators, utilities, industrial companies, and grid operators are all seeking safe, reliable, cost-effective, and clean energy, and Terrestrial Energy’s IMSR plant delivers an optimal blend of high-temperature, low-CAPEX, carbon-free heat and electricity to meet these requirements,” CEO Simon Irish said in a release. (Irish is staying on as chief executive after the company goes public.)
What now? The SPAC decision has been made and the details worked out, but it will be a while until shares of Terrestrial Energy hit the market. The partners expect to close the business combination in Q4.
Lead Reporter of Ignition
