Oklo Idaho National Laboratory project

Executive Overview

The Aurora-INL is Oklo Inc.'s first commercial Aurora powerhouse, currently under construction at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, Idaho, under the U.S. Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program (RPP). Groundbreaking occurred on 22 September 2025, making Aurora-INL the third project to break ground under the DOE's RPP — a fast-track authorisation pathway established by President Trump's Executive Order 14301 (May 2025), which set a statutory goal of achieving reactor criticality by 4 July 2026. Oklo signed a DOE Other Transaction Agreement in March 2026, and the DOE Idaho Operations Office subsequently approved the Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) for the Aurora powerhouse — the first step in the RPP licensing pathway. Oklo projects first commercial operation at INL in late 2027 or early 2028. Kiewit Nuclear Solutions Co. serves as lead constructor. The project is expected to create approximately 370 construction jobs and 70–80 permanent roles.

How It Works & Differentiation

Aurora-INL is a sodium-cooled fast fission reactor fuelled by High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) recovered from the legacy Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), which operated at INL from 1964 to 1994. Oklo was awarded the EBR-II fuel through a competitive DOE process in 2019 — the first company to receive such an award. The fuel will be fabricated on-site at Oklo's Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility (A3F), also at INL, whose NSDA was approved by DOE Idaho in November 2025 and whose Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis (PDSA) was approved in December 2025 under the Advanced Nuclear Fuel Line Pilot Program. The sodium cooling system and metal fuel design draw directly on EBR-II's 30-year operating data, which Oklo uses to benchmark its digital twin for safety analysis. HALEU fuel can operate for up to 15 years without refuelling. The DOE RPP authorisation pathway — distinct from the conventional NRC combined licence process — is intended to allow commercial operation under DOE authority, with Oklo planning to subsequently pursue NRC licensing for broader commercial deployment.

Commercialization & Traction

Aurora-INL holds a unique position in the DOE RPP: while each of the nine other selected companies has one project, Oklo has three — Aurora-INL, plus a second project under Atomic Alchemy (a subsidiary) and a third not yet publicly disclosed. Siemens Energy was contracted in November 2025 to design the power conversion system, including an SST-600 steam turbine and SGen-100A generator, expediting procurement of long-lead components. Oklo and Battelle Energy Alliance (INL's management contractor) signed an MOU in November 2025 to collaborate on irradiation of advanced fuels and materials in the Aurora-INL during its operating life — the first such fast reactor irradiation capability in the U.S. since EBR-II's closure in 1994. Oklo also announced in March 2026 that it and Centrus Energy Corp. are pursuing a joint venture focused on HALEU deconversion services, addressing a key upstream fuel supply chain dependency. Oklo went public via SPAC merger in May 2024 (NYSE: OKLO).

Scalability & Strategic Context

Aurora-INL is the foundation of Oklo's vertically integrated commercial strategy: the plant generates electricity, demonstrates the Aurora powerhouse platform at commercial scale, generates fast-neutron irradiation data to qualify next-generation fuels, and fabricates its own fuel on-site at A3F — all at a single location. Successful operation at INL underpins the commercial credibility required for Oklo's larger ambitions, including the 1.2 GW Ohio Campus (Meta anchor customer, announced January 2026) and the 5 MW Eielson AFB military microreactor. The RPP framework — if it produces a commercially operating reactor by 2027–2028 as Oklo projects — would establish a replicable domestic nuclear deployment template far faster than traditional NRC licensing, which previously took Oklo's original Aurora application through a denial in 2022 before the RPP pathway was created.