US-based nuclear power and nuclear fuel recycling startup company Oklo announced that Sam Altman will step down as Chairman of the Board. In May 2024, OpenAI’s Altman brought Oklo through a merger with his special purpose acquisition company, AltC Acquisition Corp.
The move gives Oklo more flexibility to potentially explore partnerships with OpenAI or other hyperscalers as data centre companies seek new power sources.
“Sam has been instrumental in shaping Oklo’s trajectory since the inception of Oklo,” said Jacob DeWitte, Oklo’s co-founder & CEO who will now serve as Chairman and Board Member.
Caroline Cochran, Oklo Co-Founder and COO expressed deep appreciation for Altman’s leadership. “We are excited to continue working to bring scalable, clean energy to the AI sector and beyond, and to continue to explore strategic partnerships with leading AI companies, including potentially with OpenAI,” she noted.
“Fission is an essential solution for meeting the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence and other critical industries,” said Altman. “Under the leadership of Jake and Caroline, Oklo is well suited to meet these needs. As Oklo explores strategic partnerships to deploy clean energy at scale, particularly to enable the deployment of AI, I believe now is the right time for me to step down.”
He added: “Historically, energy availability and cost, along with computational limitations, have been fundamental constraints on technological progress. A future where these are no longer limiting factors will be radically different, and I look forward to following Oklo’s leadership in driving this transformation.”
Oklo is developing the Aurora microreactor, which uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. It will use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel. Oklo says the reactor builds on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) and space reactor legacy. Oklo initially marketed a 1.5 MWe microreactor version of the Aurora but has now expanded its capacity offerings from 15 MWe to 100 MWe.
Oklo received a site use permit from the US Department of Energy (DOE) in 2019 to build and operate a prototype reactor at INL and is working towards site characterisation for the first-of-a-kind plant. The company is now engaging with NRC in a Pre-Application Readiness Assessment for a combined licence application (COLA) for the Aurora Powerhouse at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Oklo is also developing advanced fuel recycling technologies in collaboration with DOE and national laboratories.
