However, ''accepted for review' does not mean 'approved' to build,' David McIntyre, spokesperson for the commission, told CNBC. In June 2020, Oklo's application to build an advanced reactor was accepted for review by the commission. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2016. Oklo launched in 2013 and began having discussions with the U.S. Oklo has big plans, but the company still has regulatory hurdles to overcome, and some safety experts dispute the company's contention that the micro-reactors can run without people. The goal is to have 'a number of plants operating by the mid-2020s,' Cochran told CNBC. Oklo says the fast reactors will be self-sustaining and not require any human operators. Architectural Digest calls the building 'sleek.' The A-frame design is also good for protection against snow and other precipitation. Oklo's fast reactors will be housed in A-frame structures that are 'aesthetically pleasing,' Cochran said. What is left Oklo could turn into glass logs, in a process called vitrification, and bury those in deep bore holes underground, DeWitte said. and now you've actually changed it into a form where you think about it for a few hundreds, maybe thousands of years.' 'What we've now done is take waste that you have to think about managing for 100,000 or a million years. 'It changes the waste picture as a whole,' DeWitte said. Pulling more energy out of the fuel also shortens the time it takes the toxic component of radioactive waste to decay, DeWitte told CNBC. The technology itself 'has already been demonstrated in the U.S.,' Cochran said. Department of Energy to help commercialize the electrorefining technology that advanced fast reactors use in the United States. On Thursday, Oklo announced a partnership with the U.S. 'This is a common practice in some countries like France but not in the U.S., as economics do not favor this path.' 'The reuse of materials has been long an option to better utilize natural resources, uranium in this case, as well as decreasing the amount of used fuel that must be ultimately disposed,' Gehin said. 'As a result, the materials, which were previously destined for disposal, can be used to produce more energy.' The EBR-II nuclear reactor operated from 1964 to 1994, he said.

'Oklo is planning to use uranium recovered from previously used Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II),' Jess Gehin, an associate laboratory director of the Nuclear Science and Technology Directorate at the Idaho National Laboratory, told CNBC. Department of Energy's system of national laboratories that focuses on nuclear energy research and development, announced it was going to give Oklo access to nuclear waste so it can develop and demonstrate its fast reactor technology. In February 2020, the Idaho National Laboratory, part of the U.S. They can 'unlock the rest of the energy in the fuel,' DeWitte said. One key benefit of the technology is that fast reactors are able to use the waste from conventional nuclear reactors. 'In some ways, the story about what has been done with these reactors is very unheralded, which is a really cool opportunity.' 'These reactors have been built and operated before. Currently, there are 20 fast neutron reactors operating around the world, and globally, Russia is leading the development of fast reactor technology, the association says. The technology has been around since the 1950s, according to the World Nuclear Association.

But fast reactors are also more efficient with the fuel they do use, he said. 'A 'fast reactor' operates in a way that does not slow down the neutrons, in comparison to 'thermal reactors' that contain a moderator, water in today's reactors, that slow down the neutrons,' Marc Nichol, NEI's senior director of new reactor deployment and the project lead for the 2019 report, told CNBC.īecause fast reactors do not slow down the nuclei after the fission reaction, they are 'harder to catch, so you need more fuel' to power a fast reactor, DeWitte said. In nuclear fission, when a larger atom is split into two, the resulting smaller nuclei are 'going about 15,000 kilometers per second,' DeWitte told CNBC. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit

Oklo natural reactor