Irvine-based Kurion Inc. has been awarded a $10 million grant from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to further test its technology to remove tritium at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The company, which has played a key role in stabilizing the plant, said the grant will be used to demonstrate a proprietary process to remove the radioactive substance for possible deployment at the nuclear power facility.
The tritium removal project was one of three chosen from 182 submissions under evaluation at Fukushima, which faced a nuclear crisis in March 2011 when a massive earthquake and tsunami rocked Japan, unleashing a tsunami more than 100 miles wide that washed away coastal towns and killed more than 15,000 people.
Kurion workers sprang into action at the height of the crisis, just days after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck on March 11. Kurion, the only U.S. company with a direct contract with Tokyo Electric Power Co. at the time, was hired to build the first-ever external water-cooling system for a nuclear reactor. The work to remove cesium from the Fukushima will last a decade, possibly longer, and it’s a big reason Kurion expects revenue to double annually in the coming years.
The Tepco contract is tens of millions of dollars, and by the end of 2016 Kurion will be generating annual revenue well into the nine figures, Chief Executive Bill Gallo told the Business Journal earlier this year.
He said revenue is expected to top $3 billion within 10 years.
Some 400,000 tons of water at the Fukushima plant are contaminated with tritium, which is difficult to treat and easily spreads into an environment as it modifies water at the molecular level, rather than being carried in suspended or dissolved form.
Kurion was founded in 2008 by John Raymont, former president of Nukem Corp. who built the unit of Germany-based Nukem GMBH into the second largest waste management company in the U.S. that deploys water treatment systems on-site.
The company was initially funded by New York venture capitalists at Lux Capital. Other backers include Firelake Capital Management in Palo Alto and New York-based Acadia Woods Partners.
