Concept art showing the Aurora Powerhouse. (Image: Oklo)
A strategic collaboration has been launched by Lightbridge Corporation and Oklo Inc. to explore locating Lightbridge’s fuel fabrication facility within Oklo’s planned advanced fuel manufacturing facility. The collaboration aims to “accelerate the commercialization of advanced nuclear fuels through joint fuel fabrication and research and development, including manufacturing fuel using repurposed plutonium from legacy materials,” according to the companies.
The co-located fuel fabrication facility would support the production of advanced nuclear fuels both for fast reactors and light water reactors. It also would be used as a joint research and development hub for advanced fuels.
Executive orders: The companies said that their initiative follows President Trump’s directive for the Department of Energy to establish a program to make surplus plutonium available for use as advanced reactor fuel. That directive was part of the nuclear energy–related executive orders signed by Trump in May.
Fission and fuel recycling: California-based Oklo is developing fast fission power plant technology, as well as advanced nuclear fuel recycling technologies in collaboration with the DOE and national laboratories.
The company received a DOE site use permit in 2019 to build and operate a prototype for its Aurora Powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory. Aurora is a liquid metal–cooled fast reactor that Oklo intends to begin deploying commercially before the end of the decade. Last year, the DOE approved the conceptual safety design report for Oklo’s Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility, to be located at the same site as the first commercial reactor.
Lightbridge advanced fuel: Virginia-based Lightbridge is developing Lightbridge Fuel, a next-generation nuclear fuel that could be used for existing LWRs and pressurized heavy water reactors, as well as future small modular reactors. According to the company, this fuel enhances reactor safety, economics, and proliferation resistance.
Lightbridge has two long-term framework agreements with Battelle Energy Alliance, the DOE’s operating contractor for INL. The company is also participating in university-led studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University through the DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Program.
