A decade ago, founding a nuclear startup seemed impossible. Aside from general public concern around nuclear, meaningful progress in the space required billions of dollars. Oklo co-founder and COO Caroline DeWitte helped move the needle by securing the first venture capital-led Series A for a nuclear hardware company in 2018. 

The plan? Instead of designing a reactor and selling it to risk-averse utilities, Oklo adopted a model to design, build, own, and operate the plants themselves. It’s an approach that appealed to data centers and hyperscalers looking for reliable electrons without the burden of managing a nuclear facility. To fund the capital-intensive deployment of these reactors, fuel fabrication plants, and isotope facilities, Oklo went public via a SPAC, a gamble that has since paid off in three to four billion dollars raised.

In this episode, host Lara Pierpoint talks with Caroline about her early entrepreneurial days, and the complexities of dealing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the pandemic. Caroline also shares how the company successfully built a test reactor in just 220 days under the Department of Energy’s regulatory framework.

Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced and edited by Ross Kenyon, Anne Bailey, and Stephen Lacey. Sean Marquand is our technical director. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this show, subscribe to Latitude Media’s newsletter.

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