Zeno Power, a Seattle-based maker of nuclear batteries, has selected the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Sunol, Calif. For a manufacturing facility, the company said Thursday.
Additionally, Zeno also partnered with nuclear decommissioning company NorthStar to help restore specialized hot cell infrastructure to produce nuclear batteries purposed for commercial, defense and space uses, according to the company’s press release.
In March 2025, GE Hitachi Vernova closed on a deal to transfer its ownership of the shuttered plant to NorthStar to complete nuclear decommissioning and eventual site restoration at Vallecitos. Zeno said NorthStar’s decommissioning work will take place in parallel with its manufacturing activities.
The Vallecitos complex, a 1,600-acre nuclear research facility located 40 miles east of San Francisco, housed the country’s first privately owned nuclear power plant in the 1950s. The Vallecitos power plant, licensed by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), operated from 1957 to 1963. From 1965 to 1975, this nuclear complex was used to conduct nuclear energy research.
The NorthStar lease agreement would allow for Zeno to meet initial deliveries to government customers in 2027, Zeno said. Having more than $60 million in contracts with the Pentagon and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the company said it is positioned to provide nuclear batteries in significant quantities by the start of 2028.
The Vallecitos Nuclear Center existing decommissioning licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of California. It additionally has dedicated hot cell infrastructure already in place.
The company said it recently obtained possession of initial decontaminated hot cells – thick-walled, shielded rooms designed for safe handling of radioactive materials. Non-radiological operations have already begun at the facility, Zeno said, and expects radiological operations to occur later this year, pending regulatory approval.
“As NorthStar continues to decommission Vallecitos, we made the decision to preserve the hot cell facility, knowing it had future value for our mission,” said Scott State, CEO of NorthStar. “We’re proud to partner with Zeno to utilize the facility for beneficial use – building nuclear batteries to power the frontier.”
Zeno has offices in Seattle and Washington, D.C. Zeno said it plans to add more than 50 jobs in the region over the next three years.
“Vallecitos wrote the first chapter of American commercial nuclear power,” said Tyler Bernstein, co-founder and CEO of Zeno Power. “We’re honored to write the next chapter by producing nuclear batteries here that will power America’s most important missions.”