Oklo and Centrus Energy entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deploy Oklo’s advanced fission powerhouses and nuclear fuel production in Southern Ohio.
As part of the MoU, the companies plan to enter various collaboration programs supporting the development and operation of Oklo's Aurora powerhouses, including the supply of a High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) to be produced by Centrus’ Piketon, Ohio facility.
The two Aurora power plants to be built by Oklo in Piketon are designed to not only power thousands of homes and businesses but also the HALEU production facility. The HALEU production plant is designed to be scaled up to support several reactors.
Together Centrus and Oklo will establish and license the capabilities necessary to deconvert HALEU from uranium hexafluoride to uranium metal and fabricate fuel assemblies for Oklo's Aurora powerhouses.
"We see tremendous potential in a strategic partnership between Centrus and Oklo to advance the next generation of carbon-free nuclear energy," said Centrus President and CEO Daniel B. Poneman. "It has always been clear that establishing a domestic HALEU supply chain requires a public-private partnership."
Centrus will manufacture components for Aurora powerhouses at its advanced manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and manufacturing capacity at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.
Centrus has constructed the U.S. HALEU production facility at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The facility, licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and part of the company's contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, expects to begin production of HALEU by the end of 2023.
Centrus plans to expand the facility to meet the full range of commercial and national security requirements for enriched uranium, including the production of Low-Enriched Uranium as well as HALEU, with support from additional funding.
While Oklo has secured a site use permit from the U.S. DOE and a fuel award from the Idaho National Laboratory for its first commercial power plant deployment in Idaho, it has also partnered with the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative at the DOE Piketon Site for its second and third commercial plants.
"Our wide-ranging landmark partnership with Centrus is expected to span fuel production, manufacturing, and power off-take, exemplifying the early market interest in our scalable power plants and differentiated business model, involving selling power, not power plants,” said Dr. Jacob DeWitte, Co-founder and CEO of Oklo. “This important collaboration is expected to facilitate several elements of our strategy to meet the growing demand for our powerhouses that stems from our pipeline of customer engagements across various industries,".
Oklo has also announced a definitive business combination agreement with AltC to operate as Oklo and is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange as OKLO.
"This partnership will represent an important step in lowering the cost of energy by establishing a critical domestic fuel supply infrastructure," said Sam Altman, CEO of AltC Acquisition and Chairman of Oklo.
