Shares of Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), one of several start-up companies aiming to commercialize production of small-scale nuclear reactors, slid 2.2% through 11:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. Curiously, it did so after announcing some news that — on the surface, at least — sounded pretty good.
Oklo is teaming up with two other nuclear start-ups, privately held Hexium and privately held-and-Bill-Gates-backed TerraPower, to “leverage advanced laser enrichment technology to build a scalable U.S. nuclear fuel supply for advanced reactors” such as the ones Oklo is designing.
In line with President Trump’s stated desire to promote nuclear energy and support the nuclear power industry, Oklo and its partners aim to accelerate domestic production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) usable in nuclear reactors. The three companies will partner with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to evaluate the use of Hexium’s atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) technology to enrich uranium for this purpose.
As the companies point out, “More than a dozen advanced reactor designs” are working their way through the government approvals process. The problem is, the U.S. only produces a few hundred kilograms of enriched uranium annually. So even once approved, “the lack of a domestic commercial HALEU supply” of 40 metric tons of uranium fuel annually (by the early 2030s) still poses a bottleneck to actually producing power at the new reactors.
One would think this news would be good for Oklo — progress being made toward ensuring its reactors will be commercially viable once approved and built. Positive press releases can carry Oklo only so far, however, so long as the company remains unprofitable and cash-flow negative.
With most analysts forecasting Oklo will keep losing money for years, the stock remains a speculative bet.
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