Nuclear startup Oklo gets thumbs-down from regulators
I don't think it's a bad reactor but I looked at the application and it wasn't a good application.  (The NRC says the same)There was a large amount of hand-wringing about the risk of avalanches and other natural disasters that were extremely low probability.They were skimpy on interesting details about the reactor such as "What do you do if the sodium coolant catches on fire?"  (e.g. sodium burns in water,  sodium burns in air, sodium burns in carbon dioxide)  There are good answers to that in the U.S. and Russian experience.  They don't draw on that experience to show they can solve it.If they fix the application and submit it again it could get approved.