[L’instant tech] How the CEA start-ups, Hexana and Stellaria, intend to establish themselves in mini-nuclear reactors

Better late than never. At a time when nearly 80 projects, including three French ones (Nuward, Naarea and Jimmy), are already competing around the world, the CEA has decided to enter the race for small nuclear reactors (SMR). After an internal call for ideas, five projects were selected, two mature enough to give birth to start-ups. They were unveiled on March 9 during the show dedicated to deeptechs, Hello Tomorrow, organized in Paris.

The first project, Hexana, is led by Sylvain Nizou, a doctoral engineer who worked for STMicroelectronics, who then worked for fifteen years in energy efficiency and renewables. Arrived three years ago at the CEA, in charge of programs on the circular economy, this new start-up manager found in small nuclear a solution to provide enough carbon-free energy to close the industrial carbon cycle, between capture in the air, fumes or waste, and recovery in the production of synthetic fuel in particular.

“We want to create negative emissions. But we are not up to the task in the orders of magnitude with renewable energies”, observes Sylvain Nizou. He therefore contacted two CEA nuclear experts, Paul Gauthé (from the Astrid program) and Jean-Baptiste Drouin (engineer with a doctorate in the design, operation and safety of advanced reactors), who had proposed a cooled fast neutron reactor technology to sodium. The one used in the Phénix and Superphénix breeder reactors and in the Astrid program. “R&D on this technology did not stop following the decision not to build the Astrid demonstrator, recalls Stéphane Sarrade, directors of energy programs at the CEA. We still have 135 researchers working on the subject.»

Fast neutrons, heat and storage for Hexana

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