The US Department of Energy has chosen five companies — including nuclear firm Oklo and privately held Exodys Energy, SHINE Technologies, Standard Nuclear, and Flibe Energy — to enter advanced talks about converting surplus Cold War-era plutonium into fuel for advanced nuclear reactors. The Trump administration plans to make approximately 20 metric tonnes of plutonium, sourced from dismantled nuclear warheads and stored at heavily guarded facilities in South Carolina, Texas, and New Mexico, available to power companies rather than diluting and disposing of it as previously planned. The announcement has drawn criticism from some Democratic lawmakers, who warn that the quantity of weapons-usable material is sufficient to produce around 2,000 nuclear bombs and raises serious proliferation risks.