NRC rejects Oklo application to build and operate a micro-reactor
January 6, 2022
Oklo Corporation does a better job of painting a picture of its Aurora micro-reactor mirage than convincing the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to jointly “pave the road as they travel” for an unproven technology. In this case, “A picture is worth a thousand words” literally does not apply to producing a cogent technical safety review.
So today, January 6, 2022, the NRC staff denied the small startup corporation’s application for a “novel” combined construction and operating license for this atomic power cathedral in the woods at the Idaho National Laboratory. NRC denied the application because Oklo simply failed to get sufficiently beyond a conceptual sketch.
Beyond Nuclear and a sizeable coalition of safe energy and environmental advocate groups had objected and petitioned to intervene in this sketchy pipe-dreamscape last year but were kicked out by the Commission as premature. It would have saved staff time and taxpayer money to have scrapped it as we requested. Go Solar and Wind, Maximize Energy Efficiency and Conservation.
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