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Oct 31, 2024

U.S. Department of Energy Signs Off on Oklo Fuel Fabrication Facility Design Concept | Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved the conceptual design for Oklo Inc.’s Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility. The new facility will be located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and will help

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved the conceptual design for Oklo Inc.’s Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility.

The new facility will be located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and will help turn used material recovered from DOE’s former EBR-II reactor into usable fuel for its advanced nuclear power plant.

Oklo anticipates the first commercial Aurora powerhouse will be deployed in 2027.

The Conceptual Safety Design Report was first submitted earlier this year to DOE’s Idaho Operations Office, which is responsible for the nuclear safety and regulatory authority for the project.

The approval of the design concept is an important step in demonstrating advanced fuel recycling technologies.

The Aurora powerhouse is a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor that is designed to operate on both fresh high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) and used nuclear fuel.

The new facility will fabricate fuel using HALEU sourced from EBR-II.

Oklo has been granted access to 5 metric tons of HALEU as part of a cooperative agreement with INL that was competitively awarded in 2019. The newly fabricated fuel will be used to power the initial Aurora powerhouse reactor core at INL.

“We are proud of our collaboration with INL and DOE as we move closer to turning on our first commercial plant that uses this recovered nuclear fuel in just a few years,” said Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of Oklo.

Oklo will continue to work with INL to complete the facility design and obtain DOE approval before the start of construction.

Last month, Oklo finalized agreements with DOE to begin site characterization of their preferred location for the Aurora powerhouse reactor to support their combined license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

DOE will retain ownership of the HALEU both during and after its use.

Oklo has also received previous DOE support through several GAIN vouchers to advance its Aurora powerhouse design, along with additional funding to demonstrate recycling technologies through ARPA-E.

Learn more about our GAIN program.