Daily Brief : June 9: Nuclear Momentum, Grid Rules, Clean Capital

HEADLINE

Antares Nuclear's first U.S. microreactor criticality in 50 years, NRC clears environmental review for Three Mile Island restart, and two European climate companies close €25.5M combined as the regulatory and capital machinery shifts into deployment mode.

THE BIG PICTURE

Today's cluster of nuclear, grid, and clean-tech stories marks a threshold moment: real infrastructure is being licensed, built, and funded at scale now, not promised for a distant future. A microreactor has neutrons flowing at a U.S. national lab, the most politically fraught nuclear site in American history is moving through NRC review, and profitable climate hardware companies are raising capital faster than the venture market typically moves. This is no longer a roadmap, it is a schedule.

WHAT HAPPENED

Antares Nuclear's Mark-0 microreactor, a sodium heat-pipe design using high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, achieved zero-power criticality at Idaho National Laboratory on June 4. This is the first novel reactor design to go critical at the INL site in more than 50 years and the first to do so under the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program, which aims for three criticalities by July 4. Army Vice Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeff Waksman stated the service now needs the reactor to generate electrons and operate reliably enough to improve energy resilience at military bases, with a target deployment in 2028. Antares CEO Jordan Bramble said hitting timelines matters because nuclear in America has been defined too long by delays and unfulfilled promises. The company already has a contract with the Air Force to deploy a prototype at Joint Base San Antonio in 2027.

The NRC published a draft environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact for the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center, the former Three Mile Island Unit 1, on June 8, opening a 30-day public comment window through July 8. Constellation Energy requested exemptions and license amendments to restart power operations; the DOE's Office of Energy Dominance Financing is a cooperating agency. This is a critical step toward the 2027 restart target and removes one major regulatory hurdle.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission received a motion from PJM Transmission Owners and the PJM Area Relevant State Entities Committee on June 9 seeking to extend the compliance deadline for FERC Order No. 1920 (regional transmission planning rules) from June 16 to August 11. The motion was published in the Federal Register; FERC answers are due today. This extension affects how grid operators in the mid-Atlantic plan for new transmission capacity and cost allocation, a bottleneck for both renewable interconnection and resilience upgrades.

GALVANY Energy, Berlin, closed a €10 million Seed round led by SET Ventures on June 8. The company posted €20.1 million in 2025 revenue, up 7 times year-over-year, and achieved positive EBIT, meaning it is profitable at the Seed stage, which is rare. The company makes heat-pump systems for commercial buildings.

GR3N, based in Lugano, closed a €15.5 million Series B led by 360 Capital on June 3-5 to build MODUS, a 40,000-tonne-per-year microwave-assisted PET recycling plant in Spain. The company also secured a €35 million EU Innovation Fund grant for the facility, which will process end-of-life plastic bottles back into polymer-grade resin.

WATCHING

The NRC's 30-day comment period for Three Mile Island closes July 8; any final FONSI would set the stage for formal licensing amendments. Watch whether Antares hits the July 4 deadline for its second criticality test, the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program goals are now on the record. FERC's decision on the PJM transmission extension is due by close of business today and will signal how aggressively the commission is willing to move on regional grid modernization.