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Oklo pitches $1.7 billion fuel‑recycling campus, potential reactors for Oak Ridge
Summary
Oklo told an Oak Ridge City Council work session it plans a fuel‑recycling and fuel‑manufacturing campus on former DOE property near K‑25, estimating about $1.7 billion in investment and more than 800 jobs while committing to NRC licensing, environmental monitoring and local coordination; council members pressed the company on housing, schools and emergency planning.
Oklo on Thursday outlined plans to develop a multi‑phase fuel‑recycling and fuel‑manufacturing campus east of the K‑25 site in Oak Ridge, telling the City Council the project would involve about $1.7 billion in capital and create "a little over 800" direct jobs over several years.
"We're targeting an overall capital investment of about $1,700,000,000," said Ed Petit Domanche, senior director of licensing for Oklo. "That constitutes different operations, including fuel recycling and fuel manufacturing." He said the company sees the site as suitable for both recycling operations and, on a later phase, up to roughly 600 megawatts of generation on the same property.
The company described the site as advantaged by existing high‑voltage transmission built for past DOE operations and said it had received federal awards and notices of intent that support project development, including a selection under the Department of Energy Reactor Pilot Program and a notice of intent from the U.S. Air Force for a separate reactor project.
Oklo emphasized it is not proposing a long‑term waste‑storage facility. "This is not a waste storage facility," Petit Domanche said. "We're bringing used fuel into the facility and processing that used fuel." He said Oklo plans to keep a small amount of secured residuals onsite only until the federal government—per the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982—accepts responsibility for final disposition.
The company described a molten‑salt electrochemical ("pyroprocessing") approach for recycling, saying the process avoids large liquid waste streams associated with older aqueous reprocessing and that it is designed to be "proliferation‑resistant" because plutonium remains mixed with other actinides. "It's kind of a similar process where you put electrodes into a salt, and then you apply a current," Petit Domanche said, describing electrochemical separation steps and phased commissioning steps using surrogate materials before moving to used fuel.
On safety and oversight, Oklo said commercial licensing and environmental review would proceed through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and that NRC rules require design features, monitoring wells, air‑emissions controls and physical protection. "The NRC is our regulatory authority, and the NRC is the one that conducts the environmental review," Petit Domanche said, adding the company expects to provide groundwater monitoring, gas‑treatment systems to capture gases such as iodine‑129 and krypton‑85, and a decommissioning financial instrument at facility end‑of‑life.
Council members pressed Oklo on local impacts. The chair asked how the project would affect housing, traffic, utilities and the city‑owned school system and what Oklo would do to offset those burdens. Petit Domanche replied that construction would be phased to avoid concentrated rush‑hour impacts, that the company wants to partner with city and county leaders on housing and infrastructure, and that substantial hiring is anticipated to begin around the end of 2027.
Council member Turner Hensley, who said he has a background in uranium reprocessing, asked about plutonium and criticality risks. Petit Domanche said the planned molten‑salt/electrochemical process keeps plutonium mixed with other actinides and reduces the chemical and criticality hazards associated with older PUREX‑style aqueous processes, describing the approach as having fewer steps and lower hazard in commercial operation.
Oklo also addressed transportation and security: commercial shipments of nuclear materials are governed by NRC transport rules (10 CFR part 71) and DOT requirements and typically move by specialized rail contractors, the company said. On physical protection, Oklo cited NRC rules (10 CFR part 73) and said security plans and inspections will be part of licensing.
Oklo offered to help the city and public access NRC pre‑application materials and meeting summaries available in the NRC ADAMS database and other public repositories; the company also offered to provide technical reports and point to DOE/INL resources on pyroprocessing. Petit Domanche said some proprietary or export‑controlled information will be redacted from public submissions, but that the NRC implements public‑meeting and disclosure practices for its review phases.
No formal vote or council action occurred during the session. Council members suggested Oklo hold a public meeting after the company posts materials for review; Oklo said it welcomes deeper engagement, including coordinating with organized labor and local training programs to support workforce development.
Next procedural steps identified during the work session included additional technical briefings, coordination with DOE site offices and NRC pre‑application meetings; the council asked staff to help schedule broader public engagement so residents can review submitted materials and ask questions.
