DOE picks Oklo for plutonium-to-fuel talks, boosting advanced reactor supply

The Department of Energy has pushed Oklo one step closer to something the U.S. nuclear sector has chased for years: a domestic fuel path for surplus plutonium that has long sat in the penalty box as a disposal problem. The agency selected Oklo for advanced negotiations under the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, alongside Exodys Energy, SHINE Technologies, Standard Nuclear and Flibe Energy, signaling that Washington is testing more than one route to turn Cold War-era material into reactor fuel.

That matters because the federal plutonium program has been stuck in a familiar loop. The National Nuclear Security Administration finalized its Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program environmental impact statement on January 19, 2024, covering 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium. DOE’s earlier preferred path was dilute-and-dispose, and the mixed-oxide fuel project was canceled in 2018. The new policy direction, backed by the Trump administration, has shifted away from burying the material and toward using surplus plutonium as reactor fuel.

Oklo’s pitch is built around that pivot. The company has argued that fuel supply is one of the biggest bottlenecks for advanced reactors and that plutonium disposition-through-use could help bridge the gap while domestic enrichment and other fuel infrastructure catch up. Oklo also said its partner, the French developer newcleo, would bring relevant fuel experience and potential project capital, subject to approvals and safeguards. In this model, the plutonium would not be treated as waste to be immobilized and forgotten. It would be consumed in a reactor, turning a security liability into electricity.

The path is still narrow. DOE’s selection opened advanced negotiations, not a finished supply agreement, and any move from policy concept to usable feedstock still has to clear safeguards, material-accountability requirements and the technical and regulatory steps needed to make the material usable for Oklo’s reactor plans. That is the real checkpoint now: getting from a federal announcement to a line of fuel that can actually be handled, fabricated and loaded.

The politics around that shift remain sharp. Democratic lawmakers including Edward J. Markey, John Garamendi and Don Beyer warned in September 2025 that transferring at least 20 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium to private industry could pose a proliferation risk, and Markey raised conflict-of-interest concerns over Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s prior service on Oklo’s board. Wright had resigned before joining the administration, but the issue is likely to shadow the program as it moves from selection into contracting.

Oklo is also building a broader fuel platform around the same effort. DOE selected the company in September 2025 for its Advanced Nuclear Fuel Line Pilot Projects, and Oklo had already been picked for three reactor pilot projects under the Reactor Pilot Program. The result is a company trying to stitch together fuel access and reactor deployment at the same time, with surplus plutonium now sitting at the center of that bet.