Alva Energy, a Boston-area nuclear energy company, has launched with $33 million in funding led by Playground Global, with additional investments from Segra Capital, NGP, Mercator Partners and Alumni Ventures, among others.
In the announcement on Thursday, Alva Energy said it plans to unlock up to 10 gigawatts of additional electricity from the existing U.S. nuclear fleet by expanding output at operating plants rather than waiting years for new reactors to be built, aiming to meet growing industrial power demand.
“America can’t afford to wait decades to build new nuclear generation capacity or for next-generation technologies to meet today’s rising power demands. By upgrading the nuclear infrastructure we already have, we can deliver gigawatts of clean, always-on power to meet the needs of AI data centers, and we can do it without burdening ratepayers with the cost,” James Krellenstein, CEO of Alva Energy, said in a statement.
Alva’s approach centers on standardizing and commercializing plant upgrades that have traditionally been handled as complex, one-off retrofit projects. The company plans to replace steam generators and install additional turbine generators to boost electrical output while maintaining or enhancing safety margins.
According to Alva, these upgrades could increase capacity by 200 to 300 megawatts electric per reactor, resulting in a potential 10 gigawatts of new capacity added to the U.S. grid.
