Oklo continues plutonium fuel development with LANL and Nvidia partnership

Oklo announced a new partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Nvidia to perform AI-enabled research on nuclear infrastructure and fuel.

The partnership is focused on exploring plutonium-bearing fuels, including the development of science-based AI models to support fuel validation and materials science and fabrication research and development. The team will also be exploring the development of nuclear-powered AI computing centers at LANL.

In December, Oklo announced it had conducted fast-spectrum plutonium criticality experiments with LANL, generating data to support fuel validation and the development of its Pluto reactor.

According to Bonita Chester, Oklo's head of media and communications, this new partnership with LANL and Nvidia builds on that work by adding AI-enabled modeling, simulation, digital-twin capabilities, and materials science expertise to accelerate nuclear fuel R&D and validation.

Chester said research activities will include modeling fuel behavior under fast-spectrum conditions, using digital twins to support testing and operational readiness, and analyzing materials and irradiation data generated at LANL.

The role of Pluto: Oklo has had three projects in the Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program, one of which is being conducted through Atomic Alchemy, an Oklo subsidiary. Pluto, the focus of this partnership, is a sodium fast reactor platform that stands out for its use of plutonium-bearing fuel.

According to Chester, Oklo is currently focused on using surplus plutonium to fuel Pluto, but in the future the company expects its core fuel pathway to be based on recycling used nuclear fuel to produce uranium-transuranic metal fuel.

"Electrochemical recycling differs from other techniques such as PUREX, because plutonium remains mixed with other actinides to be fissioned in fast reactors such as Oklo's Aurora Powerhouses," she said.

Chester said this fuel approach supports the disposition of surplus material and enables a longer-term, closed fuel cycle based on recycling. She described Pluto's role in Oklo's broader fuel strategy as having a supporting role, demonstrating how surplus plutonium can serve as a bridge fuel while domestic HALEU supply and recycling infrastructure scale up.

The company's plutonium-bearing fuel work is in the technical evaluation and validation phase, with current work focused on building the technical, manufacturing, and regulatory basis to evaluate and advance a commercial pathway.

Chester said the next steps for Pluto include continued fuel and criticality testing, fuel fabrication planning, safety-basis development, safeguards and material-control reviews, and the applicable DOE authorization steps for pilot reactor deployment.