Oklo has announced a Strategic Partnership Project (SPP) with Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA), the managing contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), to integrate advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into the design and engineering workflows of next-generation nuclear infrastructure including advanced reactor and fuel-system design work.
The SPP, which gives partners access to specialised national-lab expertise and facilities, aims to bolster conceptual design work for an Oklo reactor system through the use of AI-enabled engineering workflows, modelling, simulation, and technical documentation. Under the project, Oklo and INL will integrate the Prometheus AI platform with Oklo’s Multiphysics design and analysis infrastructure to streamline engineering workflows and support development of Pluto, Oklo’s reactor system designed to use plutonium-bearing fuels.
The Pluto reactor was one of two Oklo reactor designs selected under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program. The other is the Aurora Powerhouse. Pluto is a plutonium-fuelled fast test reactor project. Aurora is a sodium-cooled fast reactor that builds on the design and operating heritage of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), which ran in Idaho from 1964 to 1994.
Oklo is already conducting plutonium fast reactor critical tests with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at DOE’s National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) under another SPP. NCERC is located at the LANL-operated Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), under the oversight of DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of Oklo said the work with INL “brings together advanced reactor design, AI-enabled engineering tools, and INL’s deep technical expertise”. He added: “Applying AI to reactor design workflows can accelerate development, improve engineering efficiency, and support progress on advanced systems, including on Oklo’s Pluto reactor.”
The project scope includes the development and application of technical guidance on model setup, benchmarking and validation strategies, and AI agents to accelerate existing workflows. Project tasks include enabling an agent to interact with Oklo’s existing multiphysics workflows, execute and monitor design pipelines, process results, and generate compliant documentation, all while keeping a human operator in the loop for oversight, review, and decision-making.
“Collaborations like this are critical for driving innovation in advanced nuclear systems,” said Rian Bahran, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Reactors at DOE. “By leveraging AI-enabled technologies, national laboratory expertise, and industry collaboration, we are accelerating the development of next-generation reactors to support our nation’s energy goals.”
In April, Oklo announced a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA, and LANL to advance nuclear fuel validation and support the development of nuclear-powered AI factories. The partnership integrates Oklo’s sodium-cooled fast reactor technology, NVIDIA’s advanced AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, and LANL’s expertise in materials science and nuclear fuels. LANL hosts the collaborative R&D efforts at its facility in New Mexico.
Oklo’s work with both INL and LANL will progress the Genesis Mission, a US initiative to unleash a new age of AI-accelerated innovation and discovery. It reflects Oklo’s broader focus on advancing both reactor design capabilities and fuel-related work through collaboration with leading national laboratory partners.
