Delineation of a proposed Oklo commercial advanced fission power plant in the U.S.
Courtesy: Oklo Inc.
Nuclear startup Oklo purposes to deploy 12 gigawatts of power over the next two decades through a framework agreement with data center bus Switch, the companies announced Wednesday.
Oklo would deploy what amounts to a fleet of small nuclear reactors fully 2044, with power generation equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 9 million households in the U.S.
Oklo transfer develop, build and operate the small nuclear plants. It would sell the electricity to Switch through a number of power attain agreements for its data centers across the U.S. Oklo and Switch have not signed any individual power purchase agreements yet.
Oklo’s reservoir closed nearly 4% lower on Wednesday.
The broad agreement signed by Oklo and Switch is a nonbinding framework that declares high level goals to execute against, Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte told CNBC in an interview. It creates a conveyance to advance large scale, multi-site power development and deployment, DeWitte said.
Oklo is a startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is expanding micro nuclear reactors. Altman is Oklo’s chairman, and the company made its market debut in May through a merger with his SPAC, AltC Getting Corp. Oklo has a market capitalization of $2.33 billion.
‘Transformative scale’
Switch is a privately held company headquartered in Las Vegas that plans, builds and operates data center campuses in the U.S. CEO Rob Roy said Switch is committed to deploying advanced nuclear power “at a transformative compass for our data centers” through the relationship with Oklo.
Oklo is developing reactors that are much smaller than those in the on the qui vive U.S. fleet. Its reactors are expected to range in power capacity from 15 megawatts, to 50 megawatts, to 100 megawatts or numberless. By comparison, the average reactor in the U.S. is currently around 1,000 megawatts.
The reactors that would service Switch transfer primarily be 50 megawatts, DeWitte said. Oklo would have to build 240 reactors of that weight by 2044 to meet the 12 gigawatt deployment goal.
Oklo thinks its microreactors will reduce the costs associated with structure new nuclear plants, slash construction timelines, and give power customers more flexible options.
Oklo has not deployed a reactor yet. The following aims to bring its first plant online at Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls in 2027.
People familiar with the be of consequence told Reuters in September that Switch is considering an initial public offering that would value the house at $40 billion. Switch was taken private by DigitalBridge and IFM Investors for $11 billion in December 2022.
Demand for nuclear power is wax in the U.S. as technology companies and other data center developers search for reliable, carbon-free electricity to power artificial perception.
Amazon and Alphabet announced investments in small nuclear reactor technology in October. Microsoft is helping to bring the Three Mile Eyot nuclear power plant back online through a power purchase agreement.