Oklo, Centrus explore advanced nuclear fuel joint venture

The joint venture's activities would take place at Centrus's Piketon site in southern Ohio, which is also near Oklo's planned 1.2 GW power campus.

According to the announcement from the two companies "the potential joint venture would aim to enable an integrated and efficient coupling of uranium enrichment and deconversion to improve efficiency and costs through co-location and expand domestic advanced nuclear fuel capacity to serve Oklo's needs and broader US nuclear deployment".

Deconversion is the step when enriched uranium is converted into a different chemical form, such as uranium oxide or uranium metal, before it is fabricated into fuel.

The two companies believe that having a central hub for deconversion services co-located with high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment would eliminate the need for each fuel fabrication facility to establish its own deconversion line.

Uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel services provider Centrus's CEO and President, Amir Vexler, said: "We look forward to exploring options to co-locate and scale deconversion services to improve efficiency and support growing demand."

Jacob DeWitte, CEO and co-founder of Oklo, said: "This framework supports deeper discussions with Centrus on potential pathways to expand deconversion capacity, strengthen domestic supply chains, and advance a more efficient fuel cycle model that operates from the same location."

As part of the discussions, the two sides will "explore opportunities for potential coordination of regulatory and R&D activities, including joint engagement with US federal agencies to propose solutions that support co-location of deconversion and enrichment services".

In January Meta said it would support Oklo's project to develop a 1.2 GW power campus in Pike County, Ohio, by prepaying for power and providing funding to advance project certainty for Oklo's sodium-cooled Aurora powerhouse deployment.

The same month, the US Department of Energy awarded Centrus Energy's American Centrifuge Operating  USD900 million of funding to provide uranium enrichment services. Centrus said that it intended to leverage the  funding to support its multi-billion dollar expansion in Piketon, which - as well as producing HALEU - will also include additional LEU production to serve commercial utilities and the existing reactor fleet.