Oklo's CEO Says Used Nuclear Fuel in the U.S. Is Worth More Than Saudi Arabia's Oil Reserves. Here's His Case.

For decades, the U.S. has treated spent nuclear fuel as one of the biggest environmental problems left behind by nuclear power, with roughly 94,000 metric tons of spent fuel stored in facilities across the country. And while the materials are safely contained, some of the isotopes in this spent fuel have a half-life of nearly 25,000 years -- so yes, they're dangerous, and an enormous liability.

But Oklo (NYSE: OKLO) is proposing something audacious. The company argues that all that fuel sitting in storage still contains enormous amounts of usable energy. And you know what? The science -- and more importantly, the regulators -- support the premise.

Image source: Getty Images.

This is where Oklo sees the silver lining -- one that could rival some of the world's largest energy reserves. But is all this a pipe dream, or is there an actual business opportunity here? And more importantly, how close is Oklo to taking this opportunity and delivering a real return on investment?

Inside Oklo's $1.68 billion nuclear fuel recycling plan

In 2025, Oklo announced plans to build a fuel recycling facility in Tennessee as part of a larger $1.68 billion advanced fuel center project.

"The recycling facility will recover usable fuel material from used nuclear fuel and fabricate it into fuel for advanced reactors," the company said in its announcement. "This process can reduce waste volumes for more economical, clean, and efficient disposal pathways."

But the even bigger headline here is that the estimated 94,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel could generate energy equivalent to 1.3 trillion barrels of oil. That's five times Saudi Arabia's estimated oil reserves.

The U.S. Department of Energy itself notes that more than 90% of the potential energy in spent nuclear fuel remains even after it has been used in a conventional reactor. So that's a viable claim.

Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte highlights the claim, saying, "By recycling used fuel at scale, we are turning waste into gigawatts, reducing costs, and establishing a secure U.S. supply chain that will support the deployment of clean, reliable, and affordable power."

Now, those are some big numbers being thrown around, so let's frame it against the potential scope of this opportunity.

The U.S. operates a once-through nuclear fuel cycle. Uranium is mined, processed into fuel, used in reactors, and then stored as waste. It's not exactly the most efficient or environmentally friendly of processes. Oklo's proposal would move away from that strictly once-through model by recovering usable material from spent fuel.

Even better, DeWitte says its recycling process can shorten the material's half-life from tens of thousands of years to a few hundred years while also reducing the volume of the material up for final disposal. That plan checks every box on an ESG rating scorecard.

And on top of that, many U.S. leaders view the country's dependence on imported oil as a major strategic vulnerability. One need only look at the havoc caused by the repeated closure of the Strait of Hormuz this past year to see just how vulnerable the global energy market is.

So, Oklo's planned recycling program could potentially become a valuable piece of America's energy-security strategy.

The risks behind Oklo's ambitious nuclear timeline

But there's a caveat here: While the proposal is ambitious, it's also theoretical.

The fuel recycling plant isn't expected to begin producing metal fuel until the early 2030s. It doesn't even have a groundbreaking date set yet.

On top of that, it also needs to work within the company's larger Aurora reactor business, which is still moving through the regulatory and development process.

Granted, Oklo has managed to jump some hoops since the initial announcement. It received a DOE start-up authorization for its Groves Isotope Test Reactor in Texas in July 2026. Then, in early August, it achieved a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at low power -- a criticality in nuclear science terms. This is an important step toward establishing operating experience and demonstrating deployment capabilities that could inform Oklo's future commercial facilities.

But the fact remains that Oklo does not yet have an operating commercial nuclear power reactor, nor is it anywhere close to completing the fuel recycling facility.

So it's a bet, and a long one at that.

And yet, many Wall Street analysts are willing to underwrite that bet, with the stock getting a solid Moderate Buy rating from consensus estimates. So if you're willing to go the distance, Oklo is a viable long-term choice, but it needs to execute and deliver for all this to make sense.

Rick Orford has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.