The Pentagon will order a nuclear power plant from a company without a single real reactor and license

The American Oklo received from The Pentagon reported that the project of its nuclear power plant of small modular reactors (MMR) in Alaska won an order for the power supply of one of the air bases. The military was not confused by the fact that Oklo does not have any ready-made MMR yet and the national regulator had previously refused to issue a license to the company for nuclear power plants. Experts note that the Pentagon can bypass the regulator.

Oklo has received a notification from the US Department of Defense Logistics Agency about its intention to award the company with an order for the construction of the Aurora nuclear power plant in Alaska. This is reported by Oklo itself.

"In accordance with the terms of the proposed agreement, Oklo will design, build, own and operate the power plant, supplying electricity and heat to the Eyelson Air Force Base in Alaska," Oklo reports.

Oklo is developing the technology of fast small modular reactors, but has not yet created even an experimental sample. The first one is planned just at the Aurora NPP — with a capacity of up to 75 MW.

At the beginning of 2022, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission refused Oklo to issue a combined license for Aurora, as the company's application was replete with numerous "information gaps". Now Oklo, which is supported by the head of Open Ai Sam Altman, is just preparing new licensing documents.

Alexander Uvarov, director of the AtomInfo Center, notes that military departments in the United States can build nuclear facilities without licensing from the Civilian Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

"Civil regulators are involved if we are talking about commercial applications in civilian sectors. Therefore, in principle, it is possible to build a demonstration reactor at military facilities without involving NRC, but after entering the market you will still have to contact civilian regulators," the expert says.

In Trump's May decrees, a similar situation is mentioned, Alexander Uvarov notes.

"The national regulator is required to take into account the experience gained without regulation at military facilities when licensing for commercial use," says Alexander Uvarov, director of AtomInfo Center.

Many countries of the world are going to develop nuclear power, and the United States is planning world expansion with the help of small modular reactors. At the same time, the only existing MMR is located in Russia. This is the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear thermal power plant (NPP) with a capacity of 70 MW.

As EADaily reported, in April, Rosatom began work on a low-power NPP project in Uzbekistan: the construction of six reactors of 55 MW each in Jizzakh region. The project is based on the RITM—200N water-to-water reactor.