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Zeno Power, a nuclear battery development company, has established a manufacturing facility at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Sunol where the company said it will produce “nuclear batteries that will power critical defense, space, and commercial missions”.
The operation will in turn allow Zeno Power to fulfill initial deliveries to government customers — the company stated it has more than $60 million in contracts with the Pentagon and NASA — next year, and larger scale deliveries in 2028, according to a press release from the company.
“Vallecitos wrote the first chapter of American commercial nuclear power,” Tyler Bernstein, co-founder and CEO of Zeno Power, said in the press release June 18. “We’re honored to write the next chapter by producing nuclear batteries here that will power America’s most important missions.”
Located on Highway 84 between interstates 580 and 680, the Vallecitos Nuclear Center operated as an electricity-generating nuclear power plant more than 60 years ago and had remained open as a nuclear research center, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
That was until GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, the center’s previous owner, announced its intent to sell the nuclear center in May 2023.
In March 2025, NorthStar Group Services, Inc., a demolition and wrecking contractor based in New York, announced it had acquired the local nuclear center and, at the same time, revealed its plans to decontaminate and restore the site for future use.
Now, through this new partnership with NorthStar, Zeno Power said it aims to establish a dedicated U.S. facility for research and development, as well as scaled production, of “radioisotope power systems, securing domestic supply chains for critical defense and space missions”.
According to last week’s press release, these radioisotope power systems, also known as nuclear batteries, work differently compared to conventional batteries or solar panels because of how they convert the “natural decay of radioisotopes into years of uninterrupted power” despite extreme environments like deep oceans or space.
“As NorthStar continues to decommission Vallecitos, we made the decision to preserve the hot cell facility, knowing it had future value for our mission,” Scott State, CEO of NorthStar, stated in the press release. “We’re proud to partner with Zeno to utilize the facility for beneficial use — building nuclear batteries to power the frontier.”
According to Zeno Power, NorthStar will continue its work to complete nuclear decommissioning and eventual site restoration at Vallecitos. That work will continue across the site in parallel with Zeno Power’s nuclear battery manufacturing, which will take place in the “discrete hot cell portion of the complex”.
These decontaminated hot cells, according to the company, are described as “thick-walled, robustly shielded rooms designed for safe handling of radioactive materials”.
“Hot cells allow technicians to safely build nuclear batteries by remotely handling radioactive materials through thick lead-glass windows and mechanical arms,” according to the press release.
The nuclear center in Sunol is also one of very few places with this dedicated hot cell infrastructure already in place, according to Zeno Power.
“Zeno’s work to restore the hot cell facilities actively preserves and expands the local nuclear workforce through private investment,” the press release further states.
On that note, Zeno Power said the nuclear battery development is expected to bring more than 50 jobs to the Tri-Valley over the next three years as the company seeks to draw from the “deep engineering, nuclear, and operations talent across Berkeley, Livermore, and Silicon Valley”.
“This is a major win for Alameda County,” Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert said in the press release. “Zeno’s investment creates high-skilled jobs, preserves decades of irreplaceable nuclear expertise at Vallecitos, and generates significant economic activity in our region. We’re proud that Alameda County will be home to the advanced manufacturing capabilities that power America’s defense, space exploration, and commercial missions.”
The nuclear battery manufacturer noted how its efforts in Sunol aligns with the White House’s Executive Order 14302, which calls for an “American nuclear renaissance”.
“The Tri-Valley has been a center of innovation for decades, and Zeno’s restoration of a key portion of Vallecitos continues that proud tradition,” said Katie Marcel, CEO of Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group. “This project demonstrates how preservation and cutting-edge technology work together. We’re excited to welcome Zeno to our region and support their growth as they scale production of nuclear batteries.”
