Lead accel, a Japanese startup developing accelerator-driven subcritical reactors (ADS), announced on December 9 that it had secured 60 million yen (approximately $386,000) in a seed funding round.
The company was founded in August this year. Masatoshi Kondo, an associate professor at the Laboratory for Zero-Carbon Energy, Institute of Innovative Research, Institute of Science Tokyo, serves as its CEO. The Institute of Science Tokyo is a national university established in 2024 through the integration of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
A method for transmuting elements with extremely long half-lives
Nuclear power plants generate radioactive waste such as spent nuclear fuel. This waste must be stored deep underground for tens of thousands of years, and securing suitable disposal sites has become a major challenge for countries operating nuclear power plants.
Lead accel’s approach is to reduce the amount of radioactive waste generated in the first place. In particular, it focuses on destroying a group of actinide elements known as minor actinides using ADS.
Minor actinides include elements such as neptunium-237, americium-241 and 243, and curium-244. Compared to major actinides like uranium-238 and plutonium-239, minor actinides account for a smaller share of radioactive waste, but their half-lives range from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of years.
Lead accel uses ADS—an inherently subcritical reactor—as a kind of destruction system for minor actinides. First, a liquid metal is placed inside the ADS, and protons are directed at it. This produces neutrons, which collide with the minor actinides. The minor actinides then undergo nuclear transmutation and disappear.
In its funding announcement, Lead accel stated that it will “advance efforts toward the early social implementation of ADS.”
VC firm ANRI invests
The seed round was backed by ANRI-GREEN No.1 Investment Limited Partnership, formed by Japanese venture capital firm ANRI. According to Lead accel, CEO Kondo and ANRI General Partner Masahiro Samejima have been collaborating closely in shaping the business concept.
Lead accel also explained that it received startup support from the Greater Tokyo Innovation Ecosystem (GTIE), an innovation platform supporting university-launched startups in Tokyo. GTIE also provides financial support, but it has not been disclosed whether it invested in Lead accel.
