Oklo CEO Jake DeWitt discusses the fundamental material efficiency and cost potential of nuclear energy compared to other power sources.
Assertion Partly supported
DeWitt: Fast reactors can reduce nuclear waste storage timelines to centuries
“Fast reactors in particular have some neat attributes where they can not just use this fuel efficiently, but they can use waste from other reactors and themselves quite efficiently and economically so, right? That's been one of the big hangups and holdups for …”
Disclosure
DeWitt: Oklo submitted a 600-page NRC application instead of 10,000+ pages
“Instead of being a 10,000 plus page document, it was, you know, 600 pages. It was, which by the way, mind you, is actually still a higher page per megawatt count than other plants, so it doesn't scale perfectly like that, but still significantly more efficient…”
Assertion Supported
DeWitt: All US commercial nuclear waste fits on one football field
“Nuclear power has produced, you know, a lot of energy for decades right? Producing 20% of our energy for, well, I don't, 30 plus, 40 plus years, and then before that as well. And the amount of waste it's produced would fit on a football field, being like, you …”
Assertion Supported
DeWitt: Large Western nuclear builds face multi-billion-dollar cost overruns
“The challenges with new builds, especially in Western countries with these big, Light water cooled, in other words, just water cooled power plants that produce like a thousand megawatts, you know, they're years behind schedule, billions of dollars over budget …”
Assertion Supported
DeWitt: Nuclear systems produce heat much more cheaply than electricity
“Nuclear systems fundamentally produce heat that we then do things with. And so they actually produce heat much more cheaply than they even produce electricity.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DeWitt: Very few Western nuclear applications succeeded in the past 40 years
“There have been very few successes in the last 40 years where plants that have submitted their initial applications to not just the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but any Western regulator and had those plans actually built and operated.”