Oklo Inc.'s shares gained after the company said it started working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prepare for a license application to build small modular reactors.

The stock rose 11% Monday morning. Shares have nearly tripled in value over the past 12 months, hitting a peak in February.

The nuclear-energy company said Monday it will engage in a pre-application readiness assessment for its combined license application. The application, which only a few other small modular reactor companies have had approved, would allow it to build a nuclear reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The NRC will start the readiness assessment in late March, Oklo said. The assessment is designed to make the application review more efficient because it allows NRC staff to review and familiarize themselves with Oklo's licensing materials ahead of the full application review.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company plans to submit a formal combined license application later this year, it said, with the goal of operating a reactor plant by 2027 or 2028.

Oklo in 2021 submitted a previous combined license application that was denied two years later.

The boom in artificial intelligence has created more demand for energy. Small module reactors are expected to be a cleaner way to source the energy needed to meet growing demand, and are meant to be safer and more flexible because they are smaller than full-size nuclear-energy plants. But there are no operational small modular reactors as companies are still developing functional designs and working on getting them approved by the government.

Founded in 2013 and backed by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, Oklo has been working with the NRC since 2016. Nuclear-energy companies have a long pathway of regulatory hurdles to clear, and only a handful of companies including Nuscale Power have gained NRC approval for a small modular reactor design.