US nuclear power firm Oklo has recently joined forces with Nvidia and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to speed up nuclear fuel validation for AI data centers powered by reactors.

The deal between the two Californian companies and the New Mexico research lab combines advanced nuclear technology, AI models, and national lab expertise for the federal government’s Genesis mission.

Led by the Department of Energy (DOE), the initiative was launched by President Donald Trump on November 24, 2005. It aims to create a centralized AI platform to double the productivity of US science, strengthen national security and drive energy innovation within a decade.

“This agreement brings together reactor deployment, high-performance compute and world-class fuel and materials science expertise,” Jacob DeWitte, Oklo CEO and co-founder, revealed.

Powering AI infrastructure

The collaboration is expected to evaluate plutonium-bearing fuels and build AI-driven models for fuel validation and materials research. The scientists will also explore the development of nuclear-powered AI computing centers at LANL.

According to Oklo, the project’s goal is to compress the time required to advance, test, and validate nuclear fuels, one of the biggest bottlenecks in deploying next-generation reactors. The deal follows Oklo’s December 2025 announcement that it conducted fast-spectrum plutonium criticality experiments with LANL, in order to generate data for fuel validation and the Pluto reactor.

Bonita Chester, Oklo’s head of communications and media, said that the new deal adds to that work with AI modeling, simulation, digital twins, as well as materials expertise to speed fuel R&D and validation.

Chester stressed the project will focus on modeling fuel behavior in fast-spectrum conditions. It will reportedly use digital twins to help with testing and readiness, while analyzing materials and irradiation data from LANL.

Moreover, the partners will also carry out studies on grid reliability, redundancy, and stabilization to support the energy demands of large-scale AI infrastructure. This includes assessing reactors to deliver continuous power to data centers.

The Pluto reactor program

Pluto is a sodium fast reactor designed to run on plutonium-bearing fuel. It is one of Oklo’s three projects under the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program. “We believe this will advance our plutonium-bearing fuel work on Oklo’s Pluto reactor, which was selected under DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program, and help bring resilient power in support of the Genesis Mission,” DeWitte concluded in a press release.

For now Oklo is using surplus plutonium for Pluto. It however aims to shift toward recycling used nuclear fuel into uranium-transuranic metal fuel. “Electrochemical recycling differs from other techniques, such as Purex, because plutonium remains mixed with other actinides to be fissioned in fast reactors such as Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouses,” Chester said.

She elaborated that the strategy helps dispose of surplus material. It also enables a long-term closed fuel cycle. As per Chester, Pluto plays a supporting role in the company’s broader fuel strategy.

Its goal is to demonstrate how surplus plutonium can act as a bridge fuel, as the domestic HALEU supply and recycling scale up. HALEU (high-assay low-enriched uranium) is a nuclear fuel enriched between five and 20 percent in U-235.