Aurora Archives - Nucleation Capital

Nuclear's detractors like to argue that nuclear's 100% carbon-free energy is not clean and so cannot be accepted as a "renewable" energy source since its fuel requires the mining of uranium (never mind the fact that they count biomass, biowaste and biofuels as "renewable" energy even though these technologies emit as much CO2 as fossil fuels do). They also complain that nuclear is too expensive and takes too long to build.

Then along comes Oklo, which is designing and will soon be building the advance reactor design, the 1.5 MW Aurora, that is expected to be built in under two years for $10 million and which will burn what is currently considered nuclear waste as fuel. News like this doesn't seem to cause a lot of nuclear's perennial "anti" campaigners to change their minds but it is causing members of the highly independent-minded Bitcoin community, who are uni-focused on finding clean sources of distributed cheap energy to power mining servers, to sign contracts.

This is a remarkable pairing the implications of which can have far-reaching impacts for the emerging advanced nuclear industry. First, because bitcoin miners check boxes rather than ideologies, nuclear is readily seen as it should be: a green energy source. Second, because bitcoin mining is a money-printing enterprise, demand for nuclear power will fill advanced nuclear's PPA dance cards, and help the technology pass through the valley of death and begin to earn revenue that for some, may point the way to future operating profitability. Both of these indicators help increase investor interest in the advanced nuclear sector overall, which will facilitate the ability of these ventures to meet their development goals.

For way too long, the nuclear industry and its aged hippy anti-war, anti-nuke detractors have been battling Baby Boomers who long ago agreed to stop listening and just forever disagree. At last, a new generation of entrepreneur "solutionists" are now focused on solving the problems that their parents gave up solving: namely distributed 100% clean energy grids and decentralized finance. They appear to have found each other. It is refreshing to read about this new technological bromance from David de Caires Watson, an author that speaks the same generational language.

Read The Kernel's How to Turn Nuclear Reactors Into Clean, Green, Money-Printing Machines: And how a new generation of 'solutionists' are making sci fi cool again, by David de Caires Watson, July 29, 2021.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Bitcoin, Future of Energy, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Private companies, Solving climate, Zero emission energy

Oklo new post

Oklo's combined license application, the first ever (non-light water) advanced fission technology, was accepted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The application was submitted to the NRC in March, and its historic acceptance augurs a whole new era in the commercialization of carbon-free advanced fission technologies.

Oklo’s CEO and co-founder, Jacob DeWitte, said the acceptance indicates that the NRC is prepared to license advanced fission technologies like Oklo's, which has been named Aurora. The Aurora powerhouse utilizes advanced fission to generate 1.5 megawatts of clean power.

“Advanced reactors are an important tool for climate change, and we are proud to be the first to submit a full license application and the first to have it accepted,” said DeWitte. “As a start-up, Oklo is persistently driving innovation by doing things differently. We are setting a different paradigm by challenging the current system, while getting feedback, iterating, and ultimately getting approval on things that traditionally have not been done before.”

“Advanced fission is a real solution to meeting increasing energy demands while alleviating climate change,” said Oklo’s Director of Licensing, Alex Renner. “We trust that the NRC can successfully license an inherently safe reactor that is capable of protecting our health and the environment,” added Renner.

Oklo is the first company to submit a combined license application of any type since 2009, per the NRC website, and the modernized application structure that the company pioneered will serve as an accelerating precedent for future advanced fission license submittals.

Read more about this announcement at Business Wire's "Oklo Announces Historic Acceptance of Combined License Application." Read through the Combined License Documents for Aurora — the Oklo Power Plant Application documents submitted by Oklo to the NRC at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.