Oklo Says It Has Secured 750 MW Data Centre Agreements

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 14,   The US nuclear power plant developer Oklo says it has letters of intent from two data centre providers to deliver up to 750 MW.

Oklo, which has not named the other companies, said it now has a customer pipeline of 2100 MW for its Aurora powerhouse reactors, which it says will range from 15 MWe to 50 MWe and be scalable.

Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of Oklo, said: "The strong customer response reflects confidence in Oklo’s clean, reliable, and affordable power solutions. Our approach helps enable customers to scale sustainably with reliable power aligned to their long-term goals."

Oklo's model is to build, own and operate its reactors - it will be selling power rather than power plants. The company, founded in 2013 and with OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman as chairman, says its deployment model can be tailored to individual needs and will help industries reduce reliance on existing grids.

The Aurora powerhouse is a fast neutron reactor that uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. It uses metallic fuel to produce up to 50 MWe as well as producing usable heat, and can operate on fuel made from fresh HALEU or used nuclear fuel. It says it aims to deploy its first commercial unit before the end of the decade.

There has been growing interest from operators of data centres in using nuclear energy, which they see as a way to meet their considerable projected energy requirements while also helping them to meet their climate commitments. The past few weeks have seen Microsoft, Google and Amazon all signing agreements to use nuclear energy in the years to come in the USA.