First Demonstration of Fuel Recycling for Fast Reactors Completed
California-based liquid metal fast reactor developer Oklo in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory has successfully completed the first demonstration of the key stages of its advanced fuel recycling process. This will contribute to scale up fuel recycling capabilities and deploy a commercial recycling facility to increase advanced reactor fuel supplies and enhance fuel cost effectiveness.
Oklo’s fuel recycling technology is engineered to extract more than 90 % of the potential energy from used fuel, which is expected to be utilized at powerhouses to generate clean energy.
Therefore, with the help of a fuel recycling facility, Oklo will be able to successfully commercialize its Aurora powerhouse technology that is a fast neutron reactor of 15 MW using liquid metal coolant.
The company announced that the implementation of commercial recycling operations will allow to save 80 % costs for fuel, which in a long-term perspective will contribute to optimization of cost effectiveness, creation of alternative fuel sources and reducing of high-level radioactive waste requiring constant disposal.