Zeno Power just raised $50 million in a series B funding round to bring its nuclear battery to market.

CEO and co-founder Tyler Bernstein says the cash will enable the startup to demonstrate full-scale systems next year

and begin delivering the first commercially built nuclear batteries by 2027.

With this funding, we need to deliver.

And this year and next year, start building our nuclear heat sources, assembling them into

our full-scale nuclear batteries, demonstrating them for space and maritime environments.

And after that, start fulfilling on the pipeline that we have, working with the U.S. government,

the power undersea infrastructure, working with commercial entities, power deep sea mining and telecom equipment, and space

powering maneuverable satellites on orbit and enabling long endurance resilient operations

on the lunar surface and beyond.

Xenopower makes batteries the size of microwave ovens, using a nuclear waste product called

Strontium-90. The technical term for the tech, radioisotope power systems, or RPSs.

Zeno has secured more than $60 million in contracts from the Pentagon and NASA to develop

these batteries for maritime and space applications. Think seabed infrastructure, satellites, lunar

landers. RPSs can provide steady power in places where traditional sources can't hack it.

On the seabed, it is extremely challenging to operate reliably. Batteries die quickly. Fuel cells

need refueling. There aren't general supply chains.

So whether it is government operations for distributed sensing or commercial operations,

these are large markets today that need this power more than ever.

Having said that, again, we're very excited about the space opportunity, and one that is very fun and exciting is the surface of the moon.

Generally, when you're on the surface of the moon, you're in lightness for 14 days,

followed by darkness for 14 days, what's called the lunar night.

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