Oklo Inc is based in California. They have received a Site Use Permit from the U.S. Department of Energy. They have demonstrated a prototype of their new metallic fuel. Oklo was award fuel material from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). They developed the first advanced combined license application which complete acceptance review and was docketed by the NRC.
     Oklo’s proposed Aurora reactor design is a fast neutron reactor that uses heat pipes to transfer heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system in order to produce electricity. The new reactor utilizes metallic high-assay, low-enriched uranium known as HALEU fuel. The Aurora reactor produces about one and a half megawatts of electricity. It can also produce usable heat. INL has agreed to provide Oklo with HALEU fuel which has been recovered from a now-decommissioned experimental reactor to be used in the development and demonstration of the Aurora reactor.
     Bitcoin mining is extremely energy intensive. Oklo has just announced that it signed a twenty-year commercial partnership with Compass Mining (CM). CM is the world’s first online marketplace for Bitcoin mining hardware and hosting. Oklo’s says that its “advanced fission powerhouses” will supply clean, reliable, and affordable baseload power for CM Bitcoin mining machines. Operations will begin in the early 2020s.