Pre-Market Surges Nearly 12%. Oklo Obtains US Department of Energy Nuclear Fuel Negotiation Eligibility.

TradingKey - Nuclear energy company Oklo ( OKLO) announced on Tuesday that it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to enter high-level negotiations regarding the acquisition of Cold War-era weapons-grade plutonium legacy materials and their conversion into advanced nuclear reactor fuel.

Boosted by this news, Oklo's pre-market shares at one point saw gains expand to nearly 12%.

As early as a year ago, the Trump administration disclosed plans to make approximately 20 tons of Cold War-era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads available to U.S. utilities as advanced reactor fuel, replacing the long-standing "dilute and dispose" strategy.

The DOE's selection of Oklo for negotiations signifies that this policy shift is entering the implementation phase—this batch of sensitive nuclear materials once used for geopolitical confrontation is expected to be transformed from a "security burden" into clean power fuel, while Oklo secures stable fuel supply guarantees by tapping into the national strategic stockpile.

Meanwhile, Bank of America ( BAC) analyst Rinny Singh resumed coverage of Oklo last Friday with a "Buy" rating and an $80 price target, stating that the company's vertically integrated "Build-Own-Operate" model makes it a "potential early leader" in the small modular reactor space.

Currently, Oklo has reached with Meta ( META) a binding power agreement for approximately 1.2 GWe, while accumulating a project pipeline of over 14 GWe through non-binding customer letters of intent.

Furthermore, as a U.S. developer of next-generation nuclear technology, Oklo is backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman and maintains a robust financial position, providing ample capital for the company's R&D and project advancement.