Tyler Bernstein

He grew up in St. Louis, MissouriMissouriMissouri is a state of the United States bounded on the east by the Mississippi River; its capital is Jefferson City, its largest city is Kansas City, and its second-largest is St. Louis. It was admitted to the Union on August 10, 1821, as the 24th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 6,154,913.Open the full entry. His father, Jeffrey Bernstein, practiced law as an attorney for a few years and then switched to building custom homes; by 2019 his company, Jeffrey Homes, had been in business for more than 20 years. His mother, Sara, was teaching at Temple Israel in 2019. His grandparents on both sides of the family started their own businesses, in manufacturing and industrial real estate.⁠[1][2]

He grew up attending Temple Israel, where in 2019 he still attended synagogue when visiting St. Louis, and he looked for opportunities to attend synagogue in whatever city he stayed. His father recalled that at an out-of-town hockey tournament, when Tyler was about 10, the head coach did not know the playoff tie-breaker format and Tyler recited it exactly; his father said he had “always been inquisitive and pays attention.”⁠[1]

He recalls setting himself a goal at the age of 10: to attend medical school at Washington University and become the team orthopedic surgeon of the St. Louis BluesSt. Louis BluesSt. Louis Blues is an NHL ice hockey team in St. Louis, Missouri, playing at Enterprise Center.Open the full entry; in high school he shadowed surgeons but decided against surgery.⁠[1]

He attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis, where a computer science class in his senior year sparked his interest in entrepreneurship. Payload’s 2026 profile writes that he caught “the bug for building” in a high-school computer science class, and that as a child he admired NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for the civilian space program, aeronautics research and space science. Established by law in 1958 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has run programs including Mercury, the Apollo Moon landings, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and Artemis.Open the full entry missions such as the Mars rovers and Voyager, all of which ran on nuclear batteries.⁠[1][3]

He studied computer science in Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering, whose news articles list him in the class of 2020. Payload writes that at Vanderbilt he at first expected to end up working at GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry or AmazonAmazonAmazon is a publicly traded U.S. technology and retail company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, with its principal corporate offices in Seattle. Its businesses span e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment, digital advertising, membership and entertainment services, consumer electronics, and Amazon Web Services cloud computing.Open the full entry.⁠[2][4][3]

The company history on Zeno Power’s website dates the beginning to January 2017, when he, Jonathan Segal and Jake Matthews met at Vanderbilt University to explore whether a commercial airliner could run on nuclear power; guided by Steve Krahn, they concluded that a more urgent need was reliable power for frontier environments and saw radioisotope power systems as a promising solution. Payload writes that in his sophomore year he and a friend wrote a paper on flying a BoeingBoeingBoeing is an American company that provides commercial airplanes, defense and space systems, and aviation services, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Open the full entry 777 on nuclear power, which he says “changed the direction of our lives.”⁠[5][3]

The St. Louis Jewish Light wrote in 2019 that he and his classmate Jonathan Segal began with the idea of using nuclear power to create a zero-emissions, ultra-long-endurance aircraft, soon found it a bad idea for various reasons, and then saw potential in the broader nuclear energy space and began exploring it. A 2019 Vanderbilt University news article likewise writes that the team first set out to rethink the aviation industry with an alternative to jet fuel and then shifted its focus to ground applications.⁠[1][6]

A 2023 article by Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering dates it to fall 2017, when two Vanderbilt students approached Steve Krahn, a professor of the practice of nuclear environmental engineering and a former Department of Energy official, proposing nuclear-powered propulsion to cut carbon emissions and extend how long aerospace vehicles can operate. Krahn pointed to the failed Nuclear Energy for Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) program, begun at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1946 and canceled by the Kennedy administration by 1961, shared historical documents from it and had the students submit weekly assignments for review; by the end of the fall semester the students were exploring alternative options. He and Jonathan Segal then connected with fellow Vanderbilt student Jake Matthews, who was pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and exploring ways to convert the decay of nuclear material into electricity, and turned to radioisotope power systems. He recalled that the team expected Krahn to tell them to stop pursuing the idea, but Krahn mentored them instead: “sometimes we wonder what would've happened if he hadn't responded to our (cold) email!”⁠[7]

Atomic Insights wrote on a 2023 episode page that during 2016–2018 three Vanderbilt students joined with a professor to find a useful product meeting the needs of identified customers.⁠[8]

Zeno Power was officially incorporated in April 2018, at first as Zeno Power Systems, by him and his Vanderbilt classmates. The name comes from Zeno of Elea, the Greek philosopher associated with the concept of infinity, reflecting the goal of a long-lasting power source. The company history on its website records that in the same month it received a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and a first $50,000 investment from the 1517 Fund; a 2020 Vanderbilt University article describes 1517 as a venture capital firm focused on new companies with young founders.⁠[1][5][2]

As of late 2019, he handled business development as chief executive officer, Jonathan Segal was chief operating officer, Jake Matthews was chief engineer — he had a concept for significantly reducing the weight of a strontium-90 radioisotope generator — and Steve Krahn, a Vanderbilt professor and former senior Department of Energy executive, served part-time as safety officer.⁠[1]

In 2018 the team completed the National Science Foundation’s National I-Corps program as Vanderbilt’s first-ever undergraduate I-Corps team; VentureWell records the participation as summer 2018. Zeno Power emerged from the entrepreneurship programs of Vanderbilt’s Wond'ry innovation center, where teams receive micro-grant funding and the National I-Corps experience, and the team received an additional $50,000 from National I-Corps. The St. Louis Jewish Light writes that the research grant paid for customer discovery interviews rather than product development, that the team talked to hundreds of people and pivoted several times, and that he said the top reason startups fail is building something nobody wants, so Zeno first spent time confirming a real problem.⁠[9][10][2][1]

Of Vanderbilt’s Wond'ry he said: “The Wond'ry was a fantastic resource and a great home for us as innovators and entrepreneurs.” He also wondered whether, had the team come to Vanderbilt before the Wond'ry existed, they would have had the motivation and resources to get where they were. Vanderbilt also allowed the team members to meet their internship requirements by working at their own company.⁠[9][6]

Payload writes that he co-founded Zeno Power in 2018 with support from Vanderbilt and the National Science Foundation, and that the company’s focus moved from aircraft to drones and then to the deep sea, the Arctic and space; the early team talked with people ranging from four-star generals to members of Congress. He described that period as “This was really curiosity and grit.”⁠[3]

In 2019 he visited the Tri-Cities area of Washington (state)Washington (state)Washington is a state on the Pacific coast of the northwestern United States; its capital is Olympia and its largest city is Seattle. Washington was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889, as the 42nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 7,705,281 residents.Open the full entry for a conference at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on nuclear and emerging technologies for space. The Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business writes that he left with two pieces of information that helped him bring a bold business venture to life: the increasing need for reliable power sources in space, and the key role that waste material at the Hanford site, specifically strontium-90, could play in powering space exploration and other remote operations.⁠[11]

On April 10, 2019, Zeno Power Systems was one of 20 startups built on federally funded university research that were featured at the University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase held in Washington, D.C., by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Association of American Universities. He was then a junior majoring in computer science and the company’s CEO. The company was described as a clean energy company that could serve schools and hospitals in remote locations, using radioisotopes in a device no larger than a tabletop; it had received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant and other federal funds. He said: “Our device could fuel critical infrastructure for months or years with no maintenance.”⁠[6]

The company history on Zeno Power’s website records that in July 2019, while in the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, the company won a $150,000 U.S. Air Force award to build and demonstrate an electrically heated radioisotope thermoelectric generator, its first government contract. A 2020 Vanderbilt University article instead writes that the company received an early $50,000 grant from the Air Force through the SBIR program and finished the first cohort of the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles; it also mentions a letter of support from Army Futures Command. A 2021 article writes that the team met 120 experts in the space field through the accelerator.⁠[5][2][9]

A St. Louis Jewish Light profile of December 27, 2019, gives his age as 21 and writes that he had taken leave from Vanderbilt after completing his junior year to work on Zeno, and that the company’s whole management team was based in Washington, D.C. Vanderbilt University wrote in February 2020 that he was on leave that year, and Payload writes that he took leave from Vanderbilt to run Zeno full time.⁠[1][2][3]

At the time the company planned to deliver a prototype by the end of 2020: a variation or hybrid of radioisotope generator designs meant to be affordable and compact, roughly the size of a microwave oven. Explaining the company’s purpose, he said: “At our core, humans are driven to explore the unknown, and there is no greater unknown than space.” Steve Krahn said his skills and approach were “extraordinarily mature for someone as young as he is,” and his father called his son becoming a CEO “a bit surreal.”⁠[1]

In January 2020 he and Jonathan Segal were named to the science category of Forbes’s 2020 “30 Under 30” list. Vanderbilt University writes that their company was developing a lightweight system that converts the heat from recycled nuclear waste into electricity, and that ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry’s description says one of their systems is the size of a window air conditioning unit and could potentially power a building for decades. Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering writes that Zeno Power’s idea is to turn the heat from decaying radioisotopes into energy in a device no larger than a tabletop, with a lightweight shielding design developed to integrate with it; that the U.S. Department of DefenseU.S. Department of DefenseThe U.S. Department of Defense is an executive department of the United States federal government, formed in 1949 from the National Military Establishment created in 1947 and headquartered at the Pentagon. The department’s website describes it as America’s oldest and largest government agency.Open the full entry was interested; and that other potential uses included a small clean energy system to serve schools and hospitals in remote locations.⁠[4][2]

Of the plan to deliver a prototype by the end of 2020 he said: “It's an aggressive schedule, but one of the benefits of being a small startup is that we can move pretty quickly.” The company history on Zeno Power’s website records that in January 2020 the company raised $1.5 million in seed funding, opened its first office in Washington, D.C., and began developing its prototype.⁠[2][5]

A Vanderbilt University School of Engineering article of March 24, 2021, writes that Zeno Power had received a government contract, raised seed funding and received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award, and that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had invited the company to a full-day brainstorming session on space missions that current power sources cannot support. The article describes a microwave-sized device that generates electricity for decades without maintenance or refueling by converting recycled nuclear waste into electricity, for remote and austere settings from the deep sea to deep space. The team it lists: he was chief executive officer, Jonathan Segal chief operations officer, Jake Matthews chief technology officer (he had served five years in the Army), and Steven Krahn chief safety adviser.⁠[9]

The company history on Zeno Power’s website places this in December 2021: the company won a $30 million STRATFI contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to build two nuclear batteries, one for space and one for the seabed; in the same month it hired its first team member, Harsh S. Desai, as chief commercialization officer.⁠[5]

The American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear Newswire wrote on May 23, 2023, that Zeno Power Systems had won a four-year, $30 million STRATFI agreement to build a radioisotope-powered satellite for the U.S. Air Force by 2025, with $15 million in government funds matched by $15 million from private investors, and that he described the structure as a “strategic funding increase.” Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering wrote on June 20, 2023, that the $30 million came from the U.S. Department of Defense and private investors to develop a flight-ready radioisotope-powered satellite for the U.S. Space Force by 2025, expected to be the first launch of a commercially developed space nuclear system in history. He described such a system as “It's really hot rocks in a box.”⁠[12][13][7]

On January 6, 2022, the Thiel Foundation announced its next class of 23 Thiel Fellows. He is item 23 on the list, aged 23, located in Washington, D.C., with Zeno Power as his project, described as follows: “Zeno Power is developing small-scale nuclear power systems to provide clean and resilient power in austere environments.” The announcement states that fellows receive $100,000 and mentorship over the two-year program and that the only requirement is to pause college enrollment to focus on their work; Allyson Dias, director of the Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry, said the class was selected from “the greatest number of applications we have ever received.”⁠[14]

Hanaco Ventures’ founder page and Payload’s 2026 profile also state that he was selected for the Thiel Fellowship.⁠[15][3]

The company history on Zeno Power’s website records that in May 2022 the company raised a $20 million Series A led by Tribe Capital, grew to six team members and opened its Seattle office, with Lindsey Boles leading the engineering team.⁠[5][16]

On July 25, 2023, Zeno Power announced that NASA, through the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Tipping Point solicitation, had awarded $15 million to a Zeno-led team to develop an americium-241-fueled radioisotope Stirling generator for lunar surface missions. The team, called Harmonia, included Blue OriginBlue OriginBlue Origin is a private spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000 and headquartered in Kent, Washington. It develops the reusable suborbital rocket New Shepard, the heavy-lift launch vehicle New Glenn, the BE-4 engine and the Blue Moon lunar lander, and is one of NASA’s lunar lander providers for the Artemis program. In 2026 it took outside investment for the first time, at a valuation of more than $130 billion.Open the full entry, Intuitive Machines, NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Sunpower Inc. and the University of Dayton Research Institute; the goal was flight-ready technology for a 2027 lunar surface demonstration, with an optimized design expected to triple system efficiency compared with legacy radioisotope power systems. Vanderbilt University writes that Zeno was one of 11 American companies NASA funded in that round.⁠[17][18]

In the announcement he said: “Project Harmonia will provide the technology to transform the Moon from a location darkened by night and shadow to one enlightened by science and exploration, ultimately for the good of the nation and humankind.”⁠[17]

On September 18, 2023, Atomic Insights, hosted by Rod Adams, published episode 312 of The Atomic Show, in which he described Zeno Power’s history, products, ethos and mission. The episode page states that Zeno’s innovation is a proprietary shielding system that substantially reduces the weight of radioisotope power systems using isotopes with a significant gamma component, which made strontium-90, much more available than plutonium-238, an obvious starting point. Adams writes on the page that the company had made a few contract announcements and that the guest promised more to come in the near future; in a reply to a reader comment, Adams wrote that he had reviewed the materials in sufficient depth to convince himself that the company has developed a useful, cost-effective power source.⁠[8]

On October 26, 2023, Zeno Power announced that it had completed the design, fabrication and testing of its first strontium-90 heat source (Z1) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, calling it the first commercially developed radioisotope heat source; the company says its patented design increases the specific power of its strontium-90 heat source. The company history on its website calls it the first demonstration of its kind since 1986. A celebration in the Tri-Cities was attended by state and federal officials and by representatives of the U.S. Space Force, the U.S. Navy and NASA.⁠[19][5]

On December 14, 2023, the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business profiled the company and its local connection, giving Zeno’s stated goal — to “harness the power of radioisotopes to provide plug-and-play power anywhere in the universe” — and writing that he has said he envisions a long relationship between the company and the Tri-Cities community.⁠[11]

On October 31, 2023, Zeno Power announced that it had received $7.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Operational Energy Innovation office and the Office of Naval Research to build and demonstrate, by 2026, a radioisotope power system providing distributed power on the seabed under the Distributed Energy Provided Throughout the Seas (DEPTHS) program, for uses such as long-endurance sensors and charging stations for autonomous undersea vehicles. The team included Blue Origin, Sunpower, PowerLight Technologies and the University of Dayton Research Institute. It was the company’s third government contract announced that year, bringing its total awards to more than $40 million.⁠[20]

In the announcement he said that “The DEPTHS program will meet a critical need for advanced nuclear technologies,” and that the contract, together with the company’s Space Force and NASA programs, showed it could deliver operational systems to a broad range of government and commercial customers by 2026. A Vanderbilt University School of Engineering article of November 15, 2023, writes that Zeno Power then had a team of 35 with offices in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, and a public-private partnership with the Department of Energy, the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and UCOR to repurpose legacy radioactive material as a clean-energy fuel source.⁠[20][7]

On January 23, 2024, Zeno Power announced that it had selected Westinghouse Electric Company to process radioisotopes and fabricate its heat sources; he said: “Working with Westinghouse, we will build the nuclear hardware for our RPSs.” The company history on its website likewise records that in January 2024 it partnered with a commercial radiological facility to fabricate its first systems.⁠[21][5]

On January 26, 2024, Zeno Power announced that it had secured strontium-90 from the U.S. Department of Energy to fuel its initial full-scale radioisotope power systems, with partners including the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), and a commemoration planned that day in Oak Ridge, TennesseeTennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state in the southeast-central United States, with its capital at Nashville. It was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 6,910,840 residents.Open the full entry. He said: “This innovative partnership will transform legacy byproduct material – a taxpayer liability – into a clean energy asset,” and “We've now demonstrated the core building block of our technology and secured our initial fuel supply chain.” The company history on its website says the initial fuel supply came from recycling a historic radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) into usable fuel, and the release page’s summary says Zeno and the Department of Energy would recycle a legacy Sr-90 radioisotope power system, the BUP-500, into fuel.⁠[22][5]

Payload’s report the same day writes that he said the Department of Energy was producing only enough plutonium-238 for NASA’s major exploration efforts; that he was “optimistic” about commercial opportunities in deep space, especially on the Moon, and saw multiple successful lunar landings as “a step change in the growth of the commercial industry”; and that paying $80 million for a lunar surface mission lasting 14 days “is not the best use of their money,” whereas adding a radioisotope power system lasting five years would be critical.⁠[23]

The company history on Zeno Power’s website records that the team had grown to 50 by July 2024, when the Seattle and Washington, D.C., teams came together for a full-team off-site in Quincy, Washington.⁠[5]

On May 14, 2025, Zeno Power announced a $50 million Series B led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation from Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, Beyond Earth Ventures and others; together with the 2022 Series A led by Tribe Capital, total capital raised exceeded $70 million. Retired Admiral John M. Richardson, a former Chief of Naval Operations, joined the board. The announcement states that the company had more than $60 million in Department of Defense and NASA contracts, had demonstrated a nuclear prototype at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, had secured an initial strontium-90 fuel supply from the Department of Energy, was partnering with Westinghouse Electric Company to fabricate nuclear heat sources, and had an agreement with iSpace-U.S. to develop lunar night-survival technology for a demonstration as early as 2027; it had more than 65 team members and planned to grow to over 100.⁠[16]

In the announcement he said: “With this round of funding, we’re on track to demonstrate full-scale systems in 2026,” adding that the company aimed to deliver its first commercially built nuclear batteries by 2027. In “Powering the Frontier: Our $50M Series B Round,” published on the company’s website, he wrote that Richardson had mentored him for years; that the company’s move from concept to hardware in a few years showed “nuclear doesn't have to move slowly”; and that the round would fund full-scale nuclear battery demonstrations in 2026, the scaling of the nuclear supply chain and manufacturing, and expansion into seabed telecommunications, deep-sea mining and commercial space markets.⁠[16][24]

The founder page of Hanaco Ventures, the round’s lead investor, states that Zeno Power, founded in 2018, is developing nuclear batteries, compact boxes that generate reliable electricity for a decade; that under his leadership the company had secured over $65 million in contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA and was on track to broadly commercialize its nuclear batteries in maritime and space markets by 2026; and that he has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.⁠[15]

The team page of Zeno Power’s website lists him as co-founder and CEO and Jonathan Segal as co-founder and COO; its advisory board includes Rita Baranwal, a former Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy, former U.S. Representative Bart Gordon, Ray Johnson, a former chief technology officer of Lockheed MartinLockheed MartinLockheed Martin is an American aerospace and defense company whose main businesses include military aircraft, missile defense, rotary-wing aircraft and mission systems, and space systems.Open the full entry, Vanderbilt professor Steven Krahn and John M. Richardson, among others.⁠[25]

In 2025 GeekWire visited the company’s 15,000-square-foot facility in Seattle’s South Lake Union district while he was visiting from Washington, D.C.; the company then had more than 65 employees, most of them (about 45) in Seattle, where the team was expected to grow to about 75 in the next few years. The lab tests hundreds of recipes with non-radioactive strontium-88, and the best one goes to a Westinghouse Electric Company facility in PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry to make production-grade heat sources. He said: “Our vision for Zeno is to be building dozens, and eventually hundreds of these power systems every year,” and “Seattle is a really great place where there's this nexus of aerospace and nuclear”; he called Seattle’s talent pool “terrific,” and said that in Washington, D.C., the proximity to customers, regulators and policymakers is also “terrific.”⁠[26]

On September 3, 2025, Valley of Depth, a podcast produced by Arkaea Media, released his interview “From Seabed to Space” on Payload’s website. The episode page describes the company’s path from a Vanderbilt classroom project to a venture-backed company with $70 million in private capital, more than $60 million in NASA and Department of Defense contracts and a working nuclear prototype; the conversation covered the business model (selling units, power-as-a-service and revenue sharing), regulation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, competition, the scaling of Stirling generators and testing infrastructure. On September 5, 2025, the podcast Nuclear Barbarians, hosted by Emmet Penney, released his interview “Seafloor, Icecap, Moon”; its description says Zeno is making nuclear batteries powered with strontium-90 for the Moon, the Arctic and the seafloor, and that the conversation covered Zeno’s new technology, why its work is critical in an “increasingly multipolar world,” and the upsides of competing with China.⁠[27][28]

On September 24, 2025, Zeno Power and Orano announced a strategic agreement under which Zeno makes a multi-million-dollar investment for priority access to large quantities of americium-241 per year recovered at Orano’s La Hague recycling site in Normandy, France; the two had worked together since 2022 to explore industrial production of americium-241 powder at La Hague and had commissioned a feasibility study. He said: “Working with Orano is a pivotal step in advancing Zeno's multi-fuel approach,” adding that pairing americium-241 for space missions with strontium-90 for maritime and terrestrial use would unlock operations “from deep sea to deep space.”⁠[29]

On April 21, 2026, Zeno Power announced that it had completed the final design review of the space nuclear battery for NASA’s Harmonia program; the review confirmed that the design met all performance requirements and delivered 3.5 times the originally specified power output, allowing the program to move into fabrication, with a terrestrial demonstration planned for early 2027 and flight qualification aimed at lunar missions from 2028. He said: “Exceeding performance requirements at FDR confirms we have the right design to support NASA's long-term lunar ambitions.” The announcement gives the company’s size as more than 75 team members.⁠[30]

On June 18, 2026, Zeno Power announced that it was establishing a nuclear battery manufacturing facility at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Sunol, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry, working with NorthStar, which is decommissioning the site, to restore its hot cells; the company had taken possession of decontaminated hot cells, non-radiological operations had begun and radiological operations were expected later that year, pending regulatory approval, with initial deliveries to government customers planned for 2027, at-scale delivery from 2028 and more than 50 new jobs in the Tri-Valley over three years. The announcement cites more than $60 million in Pentagon and NASA contracts and more than $130 million in total funding, including $70 million in private capital. He said: “Vallecitos wrote the first chapter of American commercial nuclear power,” adding that the company was honored to write the next chapter there.⁠[31]

In “The Power That Lets Us Stay,” an undated essay on the company’s website, he writes that the lunar night lasts two weeks with temperatures below −280°F, that recent solar-powered U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry lunar landers had operated only for days, and that nuclear batteries, about the size of a microwave oven, provide more than ten years of maintenance-free electricity but are still built mission by mission, whereas fleets of thousands of autonomous systems will need power produced like infrastructure; “not every mission needs a megawatt,” he wrote. The essay states that the company had more than 100 people and planned first customer deliveries in 2027 and volume production of hundreds of batteries a year in 2028.⁠[32]

The company history on Zeno Power’s website records the June 2026 securing of hot cell infrastructure at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center for nuclear battery production and lists its plans to demonstrate its first full-scale heat source in 2026 and to deploy its first full-scale system on the seabed in 2027.⁠[5]

On August 19, 2026, Firefly Aerospace announced a commercial payload agreement under which Zeno Power will fly its Survive-the-Night Package, built around a 5-watt-thermal americium-241 radioisotope heater unit, on a Blue Ghost mission to the Moon’s near side under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, launching no earlier than 2028; the payload will operate through the lunar night and send data to Earth. He said: “Hardware capable of surviving the extreme cold of the lunar night will be essential,” adding that the company was building the production capacity to support future commercial and government missions.⁠[33]

In October 2026 Payload named him to “Payload Pioneers 2026,” describing Zeno Power as developing nuclear-battery technology for NASA’s return to the Moon and for remote places where solar panels won’t work and diesel can’t reach, with more than 100 employees, contracts with NASA and the Pentagon and a first Moon mission planned for 2028. On scaling production he said the old model “worked when demand was one spacecraft going to Pluto,” and added: “What keeps me up at night is that it could go away if we don't deliver, which means that we must.”⁠[3]

In “Powering the Frontier” he writes that the deep ocean, the Arctic and space are contested domains for global influence, already vital for global commerce and government operations; that in these settings fuel is impractical, solar fails and batteries die, so whoever delivers reliable, years-long energy will shape them; and that Zeno aims to ensure that America and its allies lead. He writes that China is the only country with a sustained lunar presence, while American missions cannot survive the two-week lunar night.⁠[24]

During the GeekWire visit he summed up Zeno’s core vision as recycling material that is currently a liability for taxpayers and the Department of Energy into power systems. In “The Power That Lets Us Stay” he envisions a permanent American and allied presence at the Moon’s south pole, with spacecraft, habitats and robotic systems surviving the lunar night on a path to Mars, and thousands of autonomous undersea vehicles, sensors and communication nodes on the seabed.⁠[26][32]

Zeno Power: Official website: https://www.zenopower.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[34]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[35]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-bernstein/ (opens in a new window).⁠[25][15]