Apparently, the U.S. government’s solution for its stockpile of plutonium left over from Cold War-era nuclear weapons is to give private companies a shot at turning some of it into energy. The U.S. Department of Energy has selected five companies for advanced negotiations under a program that could make surplus plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads available as fuel for advanced nuclear reactors. “The Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program is anticipated to help companies unlock the next level of private funding to broaden domestic nuclear fuel supplies, spur innovation on American recycling technologies, and unlock private sector funding to fuel the nation’s nuclear renaissance,” a spokesperson from the Office of Nuclear Energy told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. One of the selected companies, Oklo, announced Tuesday that it plans to work with newcleo, a Paris-based developer of advanced nuclear reactors, to turn the plutonium into fuel for advanced reactors.
“Fuel supply constraints are a key throttle to advanced reactor development,” said Oklo Co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte in a press release. “This program creates a pathway to use existing surplus material as bridge fuel for advanced reactors to bring more reactors online sooner.”
