New Projects - Nuclear

Oklo teams up with data center developer to deploy 12 GW of advanced nuclear

Oklo argues its business model simplifies clean energy access by selling power, not power plants – offering customers a direct pathway to advanced nuclear energy.
Oklo teams up with data center developer to deploy 12 GW of advanced nuclear
Oklo Aurora powerhouse (Image: Gensler)

Advanced nuclear company Oklo has partnered with data center developer Switch to deploy 12 gigawatts (GW) of Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse projects through 2044.

Under the non-binding Master Power Agreement signed by the companies, Oklo would develop, construct and operate powerhouses to provide power to Switch across the United States through a series of power purchase agreements.

Switch is a builder and operator of AI, cloud and enterprise data centers. Digital infrastructure has become a significant driver of new power demand.

Since January 2016, all Switch data centers have been powered by 100% renewable energy, representing nearly 984 million kilowatt-hours of green power annually.

This latest multi-decade relationship aims help accelerate Oklo’s early powerhouse deployments and help the company scale up in response to growing demand. As of July this year, Oklo had non-binding letters of intent for about 1,350 MW of microreactor capacity, a 93% increase from its 700 MW project pipeline in July 2023, the company told investors in its Q2 earnings call. Of the 650 MW announced during the second quarter of this year, 600 MW were for data center projects. By November, Oklo’s pipeline had grown to 2,100 MW, almost entirely for data centers.

Oklo is developing next-generation nuclear power plants called “powerhouses” that run on nuclear waste. The company’s Aurora powerhouse design is a fast neutron reactor that would transport heat from the reactor core to a power conversion system and is designed to run on material from used nuclear fuel known as HALEU, or “high assay, low-enriched uranium.” The reactor builds on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II and space reactor legacy. The Aurora powerhouse is designed to scale to 15 MW and 50 MW offerings today. Oklo is also evaluating a 100 MW or larger offering that it is developing.

Oklo argues its business model simplifies clean energy access by selling power, not power plants – offering customers a direct pathway to advanced nuclear energy. Aurora powerhouses are planned to support growing energy demands as they are deployed in the future.

Oklo’s first Aurora powerhouse is targeted for deployment in 2027 at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The company received a site use permit from the U.S. Department of Energy, was awarded fuel material from INL, submitted the first advanced fission custom combined license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is developing advanced fuel recycling technologies in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. National Laboratories.

The partners said this Master Agreement establishes a framework for collaboration and that individual binding agreements would be finalized as project milestones are reached.