Renewed interest in atomic energy and AI mania are colliding at the Idaho National Laboratory, where nuclear startup Oklo is excavating one of America's first new reactors in a generation. The desert campus spans an area nearly twice the size of Los Angeles, hosting a project that developers hope will drive an AI revolution and nuclear renaissance.

"We're finally in build mode and not kind of playing games around the edges," said Jacob De Witte, Oklo's co-founder and chief executive. No developers outside China and Russia have completed a commercial small modular reactor (SMR). Success in Idaho is crucial for Oklo's first major commercial project: sending electricity to the grid to support data centers operated by Meta Platforms. Eventually, Oklo plans to build more than a dozen reactors at an Ohio campus generating up to 1.2 gigawatts, enough to power 1,200 Walmarts.

Oklo—backed by Sam Altman of OpenAI and taken public in 2024—is part of a crowded field. Think tank Third Way counts 22 active reactor projects in the U.S., while the World Nuclear Association tracks more than 130 SMR designs in development globally.