WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Nuclear power company

Oklo ( OKLO ) said on Thursday it plans to design, build, and

operate a plant in Tennessee to recycle nuclear waste as the

first phase of a nuclear fuel center that will cost up to $1.68

billion.

If successful, the fuel plant, which requires Nuclear

Regulatory Commission approval, would be the first of its kind

in the U.S. It aims to operate by the early 2030s and create

more than 800 jobs.

The initial investment, the amount of which Oklo ( OKLO ) did not

detail, will be for the construction of a facility to recycle,

or re-process nuclear waste, which the industry calls spent

nuclear fuel, into fuel for fast reactors like Oklo's ( OKLO ) planned

Aurora reactor.

Oklo ( OKLO ) hopes to get a license from the NRC for the reactor in late

2027.

Oklo ( OKLO ) plans to work with the federally-owned Tennessee Valley

Authority utility, to recycle its nuclear waste and to evaluate

power sales from Oklo ( OKLO ) reactors to TVA.

"By recycling used fuel at scale, we are turning waste into

gigawatts, reducing costs, and establishing a secure U.S. supply

chain," said Jacob DeWitte, Oklo ( OKLO ) co-founder and CEO.

Many non-proliferation advocates oppose re-processing,

saying its supply chain could be a target for militants seeking

to seize materials for use in a crude nuclear bomb.

France and other countries have reprocessed nuclear waste by

breaking it down into uranium and plutonium and reusing those to

make new reactor fuel.

Former President Gerald Ford halted re-processing in 1976,

citing proliferation concerns. Former President Ronald Reagan

lifted a moratorium in 1981, but high costs have prevented

plants from opening.

DeWitte said plutonium and uranium separated from the waste in

Oklo's ( OKLO ) process would not be pure, but mixed with other

ingredients, making it unusable as fissile material.

Oklo ( OKLO ) said recycling the waste, now held at U.S. nuclear

reactor sites, would unlock the energy equivalent to five times

the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

"The next generation of nuclear technologies are being built and

developed right here in our own backyard," said TVA President

and CEO Don Moul.