US nuclear startup Oklo is preparing for its second attempt at securing a federal licence for a small modular reactor after being denied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission three years ago.
In 2022 the NRC denied Oklo’s application to build and operate its Aurora reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The NRC said at the time that the denial was based on Oklo’s failure to provide information on several key topics for its Aurora nuclear power plant design. It said the company was free to submit a complete application in the future.
Oklo – based in Santa Clara, California, and with the backing of OpenAI founder Sam Altman – said this week it is preparing for a formal licence application with NRC through a pre-application process. The idea is to address regulatory issues early.
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