Austin’s nuclear industry is growing again as an energy developer moves into an office near Auditorium Shores.
Blykalla, a maker of small modular nuclear reactors, is actively hiring for its new U.S. technical center at 801 Barton Springs Road, across the street from the Palmer Events Center.
“We see a bright future for Blykalla in the United States, driven by significant demand for advanced modular reactors that can deliver the clean baseload power America requires,” CEO Jacob Stedman said. “The unique advantages of our lead-cooled reactor technology, including rapid deployment, enhanced safety, and flexible siting, align perfectly with urgent need for reliable power in the intelligence era. Our expanded U.S. presence enables us to move faster with industrial partners and data center operators who require energy solutions that can scale with their growth.”
Blykalla was founded in 2013 in Sweden and has its U.S. headquarters in New York. The company specializes in small reactors known as SMRs, which are advanced nuclear reactors that are significantly smaller than the large power plants nuclear energy is known for.
The company’s Austin offices will house its engineering and reactor-development teams. The company said it is currently planning for roughly 15 people in Austin by the third quarter of next year. Though Stedman said the office has “room to grow beyond the current if the U.S. program moves faster.”
“We ran a market study across the U.S., and Texas came out first on every criterion that matters to us,” Stedman said about the search for its technical hub.
The state is currently seeing a worker shortage in the industry with more than 10,000 jobs needing to be filled in the next three to five years.
After major expansion in the 1960s and 1970s, public skepticism after high-profile reactor accidents, concerns about waste management, high construction costs and rapid growth of less-expensive renewable sources have all worked to reduce nuclear’s share of global energy generation to about 9%.
Now, as the U.S. leans back into nuclear energy to meet demand from data centers, the industry is looking for its next generation of workers. It will need to come quickly.
About three years ago, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the creation of the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group to build a plan for how the state can build its nuclear power industry. Since then, the state, universities and energy providers have proposed new projects, research initiatives and funding to expand Texas’ nuclear energy industry. Last year, the Texas Legislature allotted $350 million to build the state’s nuclear power infrastructure.