Companies see big chance to spin nuclear straw into usable gold
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Two nuclear startups' announcements of progress on turning radioactive waste into usable fuel for electricity show the idea is getting its day in the sun.
Why it matters: Oklo and Curio are among the companies touting the concept that U.S. nuclear waste can be a valuable asset and isn't just something to bury.
- President Trump signed an executive order in May requiring the Energy Department to identify sources of uranium and plutonium that could be recycled or processed into fuel for reactors.
Driving the news: Oklo — a Sam Altman-backed venture — on Thursday announced plans to build a fuel recycling facility in Tennessee as the first phase of an advanced fuel center project totaling up to $1.68 billion.
- The company said the initial investment will be a first-of-its-kind facility to recycle used fuel into material for reactors like Oklo's Aurora "fast" reactor.
- Such reactors use neutrons with high kinetic energy to sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction instead of the slower thermal neutrons used in conventional reactors.
- That news followed Curio's announcement that it received validation from several Energy Department national laboratories for its waste recycling technology.
Zoom in: Oklo said it's also exploring opportunities with the Tennessee Valley Authority — the largest U.S. public power company — to recycle the utility's used fuel.
- It said it would mark the first time a U.S. utility has explored recycling fuel into electricity using modern processes.
- CEO Jacob DeWitte said the aim is to avoid the high costs associated with reprocessing, which the United States hasn't done commercially for decades but that France and other nuclear-producing countries employ.
DeWitte said he hopes the Tennessee site can begin producing metal fuel for Aurora by the early 2030s, if not sooner.
- The Energy Department announced last month it would speed testing of 11 advanced reactor projects — including three from Oklo —as part of a pilot program spurred by May's executive orders.
- At Curio, CEO Ed McGinnis said the company plans to conduct an additional "scale-up" process with the national labs before seeking to put the technology on the market within a few years.
Friction point: The idea that waste can be reprocessed or recycled on a large scale is controversial, with nuclear experts expressing doubts about its high costs and vulnerability to theft by terrorists.
- "In our current fact-free or science-free environment, these ideas still flourish," said Edwin Lyman, the Union of Concerned Scientists' director of nuclear power safety.
- Ross Matzkin-Bridger, senior director for nuclear materials security at the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, also is skeptical.
- "This is a technology that's been around for many decades and hasn't been commercialized because of the problems it brings," he said.
Both DeWitte and McGinnis are optimistic they can prove that recycled material can be done more cheaply and can't easily be swiped.
- "We're confident we can have robust safeguards and security build-in by design," McGinnis said.
- DeWitte said recycled fuel "is in a strong position to be quite cost-superior to fresh-fuel alternatives."
