Oklo, an advanced nuclear technology company, announced on Thursday plans to build a “first-of-its-kind” nuclear fuel recycling center.
The first phase of the project is expected to cost nearly $1.7 billion and create 800 jobs. The facility, to be built in Tennessee, will be the first privately-funded nuclear fuel recycling center.
“Fuel is the single most important factor in bringing advanced nuclear energy to market,” Oklo co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte said in a statement. “By recycling used nuclear fuel at an industrial scale, we are turning waste into watts, cutting costs, and establishing a secure U.S. supply chain that will accelerate deployment of clean, reliable, and affordable power. Tennessee is showing the nation that recycling can be done commercially.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright served on Oklo’s board of directors before being nominated to head the Department of Energy in the Trump administration.
The facility to be built will recycle used nuclear fuel, offering a potential solution to a divisive issue that has plagued the nuclear energy industry: how to dispose of spent fuel. Answers to the question have proven difficult, such as in the case of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository that has drawn strong opposition from local and state leaders in Nevada.
“The recycling facility will recover energy-bearing materials from used nuclear fuel to be fabricated into metallic fuel for fast reactors. Once used in a reactor, this process significantly reduces waste volumes for more economical, clean, and efficient disposal pathways,” the Oklo press release says.
The “metallic fuel” can be used the power fast reactors such as Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse, a zero-emission power plant that “only needs to be refueled once every decade (or longer),” according to Oklo. Maintenance on Aurora will take place more often, however.
“Everyone who wants American energy to be cleaner, more affordable, and more sustainable should be rejoicing today. Oklo’s program to turn Cold War-era plutonium into safe nuclear fuel for today — and tomorrow — is a bold and exciting achievement,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told The Daily Wire in a statement.
Oklo and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are looking at more opportunities to collaborate, such as Oklo handling nuclear fuel recycling for the TVA and building other facilities in the state.
Energy and Environment Legal Institute senior policy fellow Steve Milloy, who worked on the 2016 Trump transition team, credited President Donald Trump with the project’s success. Trump signed an executive order in May encouraging “the rapid development, deployment, and use of advanced nuclear technologies to support national security objectives.”
“President Trump’s leadership is the reason this breakthrough is happening. It’s telling that, even in the face of historic progress, anti-nuclear activists would rather tear down solutions than acknowledge success. This project offers the American people exactly what they deserve: affordable, reliable, and clean energy,” Milloy told The Daily Wire in a statement.
