Oklo announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho Operations Office has approved the Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) for the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility (A3F) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), selected to participate in the DOE’s Advanced Nuclear Fuel Line Pilot Projects.
The NSDA, the first under the DOE’s Fuel Line Pilot Projects, was approved in just under two weeks and helps demonstrate a new authorization pathway that has the potential to unlock U.S. industrial capacity, advance national energy security and create an accelerated and reproducible framework for scaling production capacity under the executive order ‘Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security’.
“This approval marks clear progress toward demonstrating how we can repurpose used nuclear fuel to power the next generation of clean energy reactors,” said Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of Oklo Inc. “Advanced fuel fabrication and recycling technologies represent a significant unlock for our business, addressing fuel-supply challenges while transforming fuel economics and creating new revenue opportunities.”
Located at INL, the A3F will fabricate fuel for Oklo’s first commercial-scale powerhouse, the Aurora-INL, which was selected for the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program. Together, these facilities couple fuel production to power delivery for near-term commercial deployment of advanced nuclear energy.
The DOE authorization process provides a modernized approach to building and operating nuclear fuel production lines for research, development, and demonstration purposes, while also offering an accelerated route for advanced reactor developers.