Oklo Selected for U.S. Nuclear Fuel Program Negotiations, Stock Opens Up 11%

Sam Altman-backed nuclear reactor technology company Oklo Inc. said on Tuesday that the company has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to enter the advanced negotiations phase for the "Surplus Plutonium Utilization program". Following the publication of the news, Oklo's stock price rose as much as 11% at the opening, and as of the time of writing, it was up 6.3%, trading at $70.06.

The program aims to convert excess weapons-grade plutonium left over from the Cold War into advanced reactor fuel, in order to alleviate the current fuel bottleneck constraining the scaled deployment of fission electricity. According to the Department of Energy's plan, the U.S. will provide nearly 20 tons of weapons-grade plutonium that was retained from the Cold War. Oklo is one of four other institutions selected, and the Department of Energy has not yet disclosed specific information about the other selected parties.

Oklo's Chief Executive Officer, Jacob DeWitte, stated:

“This program paves the way for using existing surplus materials as transitional fuel for advanced reactors, allowing more reactors to come online sooner. Materials originally slated for disposal will now be transformed into clean electricity.”

Bloomberg notes that with the urgent demand for round-the-clock carbon-free electricity in the age of artificial intelligence, nuclear power is gaining widespread support once again. Oklo is one of dozens of companies currently developing advanced nuclear reactors. Although this technology has not yet been commercialized, it has already attracted hyper-scale cloud vendors and government agencies hoping to gain an advantage in the AI race.