Oklo Claims Spent Nuclear Fuel Rivals Oil Reserves in US
Oklo, a US-based company trading on the NYSE under the ticker OKLO, is making a bold claim about the potential of spent nuclear fuel. According to CEO Jacob DeWitte, the energy recoverable from America's stockpile of used nuclear fuel is equivalent to approximately 1.3 trillion barrels of oil, or five times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
The company argues that this liability can be turned into a vast, untapped energy resource by recycling spent fuel using its proposed model. Oklo's approach would break from the current once-through nuclear fuel cycle and extract usable material from spent fuel, significantly improving both efficiency and the environmental footprint of nuclear power generation.
The company is building an advanced fuel center in Tennessee with a $1.68 billion plan to produce metal fuel for its Aurora powerhouses. Oklo has made progress on regulatory approvals, including completing a pre-application readiness assessment and receiving start-up authorization from the Department of Energy. However, the commercial, regulatory, and technical risks involved remain substantial for a company still building toward its first revenue-generating plant.