California company wants to start building first nuclear plant in Idaho in 2027
Fission power and nuclear fuel recycling company Oklo has secured an environmental compliance permit from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for its fission power plant site in the US.
The California company, backed by Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of US artificial intelligence company OpenAI, said in a statement that the permit is a significant milestone as it advances its plans to deliver the first commercial advanced fission power plant in the US.
This announcement follows the recent finalisation of a memorandum of agreement with the DOE, which means site characterisation at the company’s preferred INL site can begin.
Oklo wants to break ground on the reactor project in 2026 and plans for the plant to come online in 2027, although regulatory review could delay the start date.
Oklo still needs approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build and operate the plant after its first application was rejected in 2022.
The NRC rejected the combined licence application to build and operate a plant at INL on the grounds that the company had failed to provide information on several key topics for the Aurora design. Oklo restarted its licensing process for the project in September 2022.
In an earlier interview with CNBC, Oklo co-founder and chief executive officer Jacob DeWitte acknowledged there is a risk the 2027 start date gets pushed out depending on how long the NRC review takes.
The environmental compliance permit also comes on the heels of DOE approval of Oklo’s conceptual safety design report for its Aurora fuel fabrication facility, which will recycle nuclear material at INL to fuel the Aurora nuclear power plant.
Next Step Is Site Characterisation
“These approvals represent pivotal steps forward as we advance toward deploying the first commercial advanced fission plant,” said DeWitte. “With this process complete, we can begin site characterisation.”
DeWitte said Oklo is in a position to respond to a growing order book and meet diverse energy needs across data centres, industrial processes, defence and off-grid communities.
Oklo is developing advanced fission nuclear power technology and nuclear fuel recycling techniques.
The company’s Aurora nuclear power plant consists of a small fast neutron fission reactor with integrated solar panels. Aurora can produce up to 15 MW of power and operate for 10 years or longer before refuelling. It can also generate heat for industrial applications.
It uses metallic fuel and can operate on fuel made from fresh high assay low-enriched uranium (Haleu) or used nuclear fuel.
Fast neutron reactors offer the prospect of vastly more efficient use of uranium resources and the ability to burn actinides, which are otherwise the long-lived component of high-level nuclear waste. They can extract more energy from uranium, use less mined uranium and convert unused uranium into new fuel.
Altman is Oklo’s chairman. The company went public in May through a merger with his AltC Acquisition Corp.
Last month, Oklo’s share price increased 115% to $19.72 following announcements from Amazon and Google that they would investment in next-generation nuclear energy firms. On 8 November Oklo’s share price was $26.56.
Oklo’s Aurora nuclear power plant consists of a small fast neutron fission reactor with integrated solar panels. Courtesy Oklo.
