NANO Nuclear Taps The Korean Builder That Already Bet $30 Million On Its Reactor

A day after LIS Technologies, the laser enrichment partner of NANO Nuclear (NNE), filed for a Nasdaq IPO, NANO signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering on its first KRONOS microreactor at the University of Illinois.

$NNE NANO Nuclear Energy and Hyundai Engineering Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Advance KRONOS MMR Project Execution and Future Fleet Deployment – The collaboration also builds on more than a decade of HEC familiarity with KRONOS MMR https://t.co/c65zb98RXA

— NANO Nuclear Energy (NASDAQ: NNE) (@nano_nuclear) October 27, 2026

At first glance, it looks like the MOUs NANO has been signing all year, including a January deal with another Korean company, DS Dansuk, that we covered as NANO’s entry into Asia.

This latest update from NANO is different from their previous announcements this year in two ways:

First, the direction. DS Dansuk was about taking KRONOS to Korean factories. The Abu Dhabi and Supermicro MOUs and the 1 GW Texas study were about finding customers.

This latest one points Hyundai Engineering at the Illinois unit itself, whose construction permit application the NRC accepted for review in May. The initial focus is construction planning, but could expand dramatically as time goes on.

“NANO Nuclear is deliberately assembling the industrial capabilities required to move advanced nuclear technology from design into repeatable deployment.” said Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman of NANO Nuclear Energy. “Our objective is not simply to develop an advanced microreactor; it is to build the broader platform around it. This includes engineering, manufacturing, fuel, transportation, project execution and the necessary supply chain that can support real projects at scale.

Second, Hyundai Engineering already knows this reactor. It started working with the design’s original developer, Ultra Safe Nuclear (USNC), in 2012, and in early 2022 it put $30 million into USNC for exclusive rights to build its microreactors. That year it said the first unit would be running at Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories by the end of 2026.

Instead, USNC went bankrupt, and NANO picked up the design for $8.5 million in early 2025, less than a third of what Hyundai had put in.

The LIS angle

That platform now spans a nuclear transport business, a pending deconversion license in New Mexico and a stake in LIS, whose Oak Ridge test loop took delivery of its first uranium this month.

LIS wants about $17 million, selling roughly 2.83 million shares at $5 to $7 under the ticker “LIS.” NANO bought 2,666,667 LIS shares for $2 million in 2024, a stake worth about $16 million at the midpoint.

As we put it yesterday, the gas station finally has a price tag, even if it still has no cars. Now NANO is lining up somebody who might build the first one.