Aim is to advance ‘large scale, multi-site nuclear power development and deployment’
Nuclear startup Oklo aims to deploy 12 GW of power over the next two decades through a framework agreement with data centre operator Switch, the companies announced on 18 December.
California-based Oklo would deploy what amounts to a fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs) to 2044, with power generation equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 9 million households in the US.
Oklo would develop, build and operate the plants. It would sell the electricity to Switch through a number of power purchase agreements for its data centres across the US.
Oklo and Switch have not signed any individual power purchase agreements yet.
The broad agreement signed by Oklo and Switch is a nonbinding framework that sets high level goals to execute against, Oklo chief executive officer Jacob DeWitte said in a statement. It creates a vehicle to advance large scale, multi-site nuclear power development and deployment, DeWitte said.
Oklo is a startup backed by OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman that is developing micro nuclear reactors. Altman is Oklo’s chairman, and the company made its market debut in May through a merger with his AltC Acquisition Corp. Oklo has a market capitalisation of $2.33bn (€2.22bn).
Switch is a privately held company headquartered in Las Vegas that designs, builds and operates data centre campuses in the US. Chief executive officer Rob Roy said Switch is committed to deploying advanced nuclear power “at a transformative scale for our data centres” through the relationship with Oklo.
First Deployment Planned For 2027
Oklo’s Aurora nuclear power plant consists of a small fast neutron fission reactor with integrated solar panels. Aurora can produce up to 15 MW of power and operate for 10 years or longer before refuelling. It can also generate heat for industrial applications.
It uses metallic fuel and can operate on fuel made from fresh high assay low-enriched uranium (Haleu) or used nuclear fuel.
Fast neutron reactors offer the prospect of vastly more efficient use of uranium resources and the ability to burn actinides, which are otherwise the long-lived component of high-level nuclear waste. They can extract more energy from uranium, use less mined uranium and convert unused uranium into new fuel.
Oklo has not deployed a reactor yet. The company aims to bring its first plant online at Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls in 2027.
The company said recently it had received letters of intent and is partnering with two major data centre providers to deliver up to 750 MW of nuclear power for data centres across the US. It gave no further details of those agreements.
