Fermi America, a Texas company founded by former US energy secretary Rick Perry, aims to build the largest energy and data complex in its kind driven by nuclear, natural gas and solar energy, it said Thursday.
Fermi plans to collaborate with the “Hypergrid” project with Texas Tech University and said it will be launched on July 4th.
Perry, who also served as Texas Governor, said China is building 22 nuclear reactors while the United States is not building any.
“We’re behind – and it’s all hands on the deck. We have to do everything we can to win this race because this is the race that really matters.”
The interest in building new nuclear facilities is spiking after President Donald Trump issued executive orders last month aimed at fixing spores applications for new reactors and reviewing Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Nuclear critics and some advocates have criticized the audit as potentially harmful to the industry and puts politics ahead of security and public health. Trump this month also fired Democratic NRC Commissioner Chris Hanson.
Fermi said Amarillo -Campus has the potential to deliver up to 11 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear, gas and solar energy, about enough for more than 8.2 million homes, with 1 GW expected online at the end of 2026. It did not say how much the project would cost or how it is financed.
Fermi said the project will be the largest US nuclear power complex but did not say when it would be completed. The US nuclear power has been plagued by delays and costs, with the last reactor coming online last year in Georgia.
The last two reactors that were completed in Vogtle, Georgia, cost a total of more than $ 30 billion, according to US Energy Information Administration
NRC said it is undergoing applications from Fermi, which will soon be public. The Washington Post said the project has applied for four 1-GW atom reactors. Fermi did not confirm it right away.
The nearly 5,800 hectare campus (2,347 hectares) will also have capacity for large artificial intelligence data centers.
The site near the Department of Energy’s Pantex Atom Weapons, “Fermi’s strategic position emphasizes to build pure, secure, new nuclear power for America’s next generation AI,” Fermi said.
The site is also located near some of the largest US gas lines and on top of a large natural gas field.
