Another small advanced reactor has seen a major contract in jeopardy, casting more doubt on the prospects for the highly-touted future of small modular nuclear reactors. The online news service Alaska Beacon reports that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has revoked an August Air Force preliminary decision to install an experimental Oklo micro reactor at Eielson Air Force near Fairbanks.
The Defense Department logistics arm refused repeated requests for details and clarification of the cancellation of the Oklo project. The chance to build a small nuclear power plant at the Alaskan location drew interest from SMR vendors Oklo, BWXT, Westinghouse, NuScale Power, and Rolls Royce, among many interested energy industry parties at a meeting last year.
According to the Alaska Beacon, Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp., a new entrant in the SMR market, which has worked with DOD and NASA on space nuclear power systems made a “prefiling notice of protest” with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims when the Air Force picked the Oklo project. Untra Safe wants to offer 3.5-15 MW “modular micro reactors” for remote terrestrial uses, the same market better-known Oklo is targeting, A company official acknowledged the filing but said Ultra Safe had not yet made a formal protest. The court told The Quad Report that such filings are not public documents.
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