- But some say all of this activity is overwrought and a sign that investors are forgetting the industry's long history of taking too long and being too expensive to be meaningful.And when you broaden that circle, you get a lot of new minds, different thinking, a variety of experiments."With private investment in the space, "there will be out-of-the-box thinking," he said."This is still pretty small compared to the private investments in renewables," like wind and solar, for example, said David Schlissel, director of resource planning analysis at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a market research firm.Now, following a war, and inflationary related forces, the fundraising market is just not what it was earlier and that is challenging for everyone seeking funding and support, nuclear or otherwise," Brett Rampal, a nuclear energy expert who evaluates investment opportunities and consults for nuclear startups, told CNBC."