Nano Nuclear to receive $6.8 million award from Illinois

October 8, 2025, 10:13AMNuclear News
A rendering of the proposed Kronos MRR at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Image: NANO Nuclear Energy Inc.

New York City–based advanced nuclear technology developer Nano Nuclear and the Office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Tuesday that Nano will receive $6.8 million in state funding to establish its new manufacturing and research and development facility in Illinois.

The funding will come in the form of incentive awards from the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles in Illinois (REV Illinois) program. The facility will be further supported by $12 million in investments from Nano Nuclear itself.

More details: In July, the company acquired a property in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook for $3.5 million. It features a 23,537-square-foot standalone facility, including a dedicated 7,400-square-foot nonnuclear demonstration area.

The facility, which Nano Nuclear promises will create 50 new full-time jobs, will be used to support personnel who are working to advance the company’s flagship project: the Kronos MMR (micro modular reactor) at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign.

Quotables: “With the strong presence of nuclear utilities and R&D institutions in Illinois, this is the ideal ecosystem for us to thrive,” said Florent Heidet, chief technology officer at Nano Nuclear.

Nano Nuclear CEO James Walker added, “This new hub will play a central role in our work to construct, demonstrate, and ultimately commercialize our Kronos MMR.”

Some context: Illinois’s funding of new nuclear development is in line with the state’s nuclear legacy and present, considering it is the largest nuclear energy producer in the country. It also aligns with Pritzker’s generally pronuclear stance, especially when it comes to smaller-scale reactors like the 15-MWe high-temperature, gas-cooled Kronos MMR, which is designed to be co-located with data centers and other energy-intensive industries and could also meet needs for industrial heat.

Beyond those applications, Nano Nuclear says that the reactor’s modular design will allow a multiunit configuration to fulfill gigawatt-scale power needs.

In 2021, Pritzker and the Illinois legislature passed the REV Illinois Act into law with the aim of bolstering the state’s clean manufacturing sector. While electric vehicles and renewable energy were the highlighted focuses of the legislation, it also served as a booster to nuclear. This is because it included companies in the nuclear sector under the definition of “renewable energy manufacturers.”

The new Chicagoland facility will be Nano Nuclear’s second demonstration facility in the U.S. The first, in Westchester County, N.Y., opened in February.

While the Kronos MMR at UIUC is Nano’s lead project, the company also recently won a contract with AFWERX, the innovation and venture arm of the U.S. Air Force, to explore deploying the reactor at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB) in Washington, D.C.


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