Nuclear technology company Oklo Inc. announced plans to establish a fuel recycling facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as the first phase of an advanced fuel center.
Oklo expects the investment to total up to nearly $1.7 billion and create over 800 jobs.
The initial investment will support a facility that recovers material from used nuclear fuel and fabricates it into fuel for advanced reactors like Oklo's Aurora powerhouse. The company anticipates the site will begin producing metal fuel for Aurora powerhouses by the early 2030s.
The fuel recycling facility serves as the first phase of Oklo’s broader advanced fuel center, a multi-facility campus aimed at supporting recycling and fuel fabrication.
Oklo also plans to explore opportunities with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to recycle used fuel at the new facility and evaluate potential power sales from future Oklo powerhouses in the region. The company said the collaboration would mark the first time that a U.S. utility explored recycling used fuel into clean electricity through modern electrochemical processes.
"By recycling used fuel at scale, we are turning waste into gigawatts, reducing costs and establishing a secure U.S. supply chain that will support the deployment of clean, reliable and affordable power," Oklo Co-Founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte said.
According to Oklo, more than 94,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel stored at power plant sites around the country contain considerable reserves of recyclable fuel. The company estimated that recycling this fuel could unlock energy equivalent to about 1.3 trillion barrels of oil.
Oklo has completed a licensing project plan for the fuel recycling facility with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is currently in pre-application engagement with the regulator’s staff. In July, Oklo successfully completed pre-application readiness assessment for Phase 1 of the combined license application for its first commercial Aurora powerhouse.
