There is no verified fission reaction that is used to produce energy on this planet yet, is this a scam ?
Oklo said the Aurora plant can produce power for decades without any need to refuel. It can also recycle fuel and ultimately convert nuclear waste to clean energy.
Oklo has been engaged in pre-application activities with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2016 for the Aurora design, and says it is preparing to submit its first licence application. The company has previously received federal cost-shared funding for technology development through the US Department of Energy's cost-shared Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative.
Oklo faces significant hurdles on its road to regulatory approval, though. For one thing, Aurora is a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor, a design that has been used almost exclusively on submarines. “Frankly, the regulatory paradigm is built for large reactors,” DeWitte says.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-next-nuclear-plants-will-be-...
> For one thing, Aurora is a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor, a design that has been used almost exclusively on submarines.
That is incorrect. We have about 450 reactor-years experience as a world in terrestrial sodium-cooled fast reactors [1]. The Seawolf was a sodium-cooled submarine for a while, but Rickover converted it to water since it was a pain to deal with sodium in an ocean environment. The Russians ran some Alfa-class lead-cooled submarines, but these are a tiny fraction of the world's liquid metal experience.
In fact, the first nuclear electricity was produced by a liquid-metal cooled reactor called EBR-I in 1952. It's a museum now near Arco, ID, and is totally worth visiting. In the US we ran EBR-1, EBR-2, and FFTF across decades, as well as some smaller experimental reactors. France ran Phénix well and SuperPhénix poorly. The Russians ran BOR-60, BN-350, BN-600, and now BN-800. The Indians have FBTR. China is operating the CEFR. All of these are sodium-cooled.
The Oklo design is highly de-rated. If you have a fuel loading that lasts in a normal plant for 3 years at 300 MW, you can run it for 9 years at 100 MW and 90 years at 10 MW. From a nuclear perspective, the fuel wouldn't know. Except for corrosion. Corrosion will get ya with time-at-temperature. To beat corrosion, you need good chemistry control and low temperatures to operate a long-lived nuclear core.
There is no verified fission reaction that is used to produce energy on this planet yet, is this a scam ?
Oklo said the Aurora plant can produce power for decades without any need to refuel. It can also recycle fuel and ultimately convert nuclear waste to clean energy.
Oklo has been engaged in pre-application activities with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2016 for the Aurora design, and says it is preparing to submit its first licence application. The company has previously received federal cost-shared funding for technology development through the US Department of Energy's cost-shared Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative.
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsoklo-reveals-design-for...
Oklo faces significant hurdles on its road to regulatory approval, though. For one thing, Aurora is a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor, a design that has been used almost exclusively on submarines. “Frankly, the regulatory paradigm is built for large reactors,” DeWitte says. https://www.wired.com/story/the-next-nuclear-plants-will-be-...