Nuclear-power startups are having a banner year as energy prices soar with the world’s electric needs

Nuclear options... As the world grows hungrier for electricity, interest in nuclear-power innovation has exploded: over the past year, venture-capital investors have poured $3.4B into nuclear fusion and fission startups. Refresher:

• Fossil fuels were the US’s main sources of electricity generation last year. Natural gas provided 38% of its electricity, while coal made up 22%.
• But nuclear isn't far behind... Nuclear energy powered nearly 20% of America’s electricity (the same as renewables like hydroelectric and wind).
• Fission: All nuclear power plants currently produce electricity from nuclear fission (think: splitting atoms), but it's considered nonrenewable because it requires uranium.
• Fusion is much harder to produce but generates significantly more power than fission and produces zero greenhouse-gas emissions (#renewable).

A distant dream?... No one has yet developed a commercially viable fusion power plant. The process is hard to create and control — and it's extra-pricey. Now, nuclear-tech companies are raising big rounds to innovate:

• Bill Gates’ TerraPower raised $750M last week in its quest to fight the climate crisis with “carbon-free advanced nuclear energy” and treat cancer with nuclear isotopes.
• Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised nearly $2B over the past year to further its ambitious goal of building a compact fusion power plant.
• General Fusion said this month that it’s cracked the code to building the world’s first commercially viable fusion plant, and is planning a demonstration facility in the UK.
• Helion Energy, which aims to build the first fusion generators and enable “a future with unlimited clean electricity” has raised nearly $600M in the past year.