Oklo and Switch Form Landmark Strategic Relationship to Deploy 12 Gigawatts of Advanced Nuclear Power, One of the Largest Corporate Clean Power Agreements Ever Signed

Industry Discussions Nuclear Power
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SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Oklo Inc. (NYSE: OKLO) (“Oklo” or the “Company”), an advanced nuclear technology company, and Switch, a premier provider of AI, cloud and enterprise data centers, have signed a non-binding Master Power Agreement (“Master Agreement”) to deploy 12 gigawatts of Oklo Aurora powerhouse projects through 2044. This is one of the largest corporate clean power agreements ever signed. The Master Agreement establishes a framework for collaboration, with the expectation that individual binding agreements will be finalized as project milestones are reached.

https://oklo.com/newsroom/news-details/2024/Oklo-and-Switch-Form-Landmark-Strategic-Relationship-to-Deploy-12-Gigawatts-of-Advanced-Nuclear-Power-One-of-the-Largest-Corporate-Clean-Power-Agreements-Ever-Signed/default.aspx

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There doesn’t appear to be a published schedule for getting the Oklo Aurora design approved by the NRC. From the NRC website, it says they are engaged in “pre-application activities”. These activities are apparently Oklo providing information and answering NRC’s questions.

The NRC previously rejected Oklo’s initial application. Since Oklo is a newcomer to the nuclear power industry, they probably didn’t fully understand how the NRC works and the type of information the NRC requires in evaluating a new design. These sort of development problems are understandable, and hopefully the Oklo people now have a better path to success.

NRC webpage on current activities related to the Oklo Aurora design:
https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/licensing-activities/pre-application-activities/okla-aurora-powerhouse.html

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The Oklo press release says the agreement is for 12 gigawatts of new capacity. That is 12,000 megawatts. The NRC website says the Aurora design will provide 15 MWe per reactor.

12000 / 15 = 800 reactors! That is over 8 times the number of operable nuclear power reactors in the US right now. I suppose this is what they mean by assembly line production of SMRs. I would guess they will gang up several reactors at one power production site. That way they can better optimize staffing, including the security staff requirements.

Oklo is an interesting name. Oklo is a region in the African country of Gabon. It is where French scientists first identified the remains of natural nuclear reactors, which operated there millions of years ago. It turns out Mother Nature built the first fission reactors long, long before Enrico Fermi built the Chicago pile as part of the Manhattan Project.

_ Pete

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