Company planning four AP1000 units as part of Texas energy and data centre project
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has accepted for review two initial submissions of a combined licence application from US-based private energy developer Fermi America, containing sufficient design information for four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors near Amarillo in Carson County, Texas.
Fermi America submitted the first portion of the application on 17 June, providing general, financial and environmental information.
It submitted the second portion on 20 August, providing non-site-specific technical chapters of the final safety analysis report featuring the AP1000 standard certified design and other supplemental information.
As part of its efforts to improve regulatory efficiency, the NRC is exploring innovative approaches to environmental reviews. The agency is working with Fermi America in a pilot programme to develop an applicant-prepared document.
Fermi America is expected to submit site-specific information throughout 2026.
The proposed reactors at Amarillo would be part of a hybrid energy and hyperscale data centre infrastructure project.
The facility is designed to be the world’s largest, first-of-its kind private grid to provide power for processes such as next-generation AI.
A hyperscale data centre is a massive facility designed to support enormous data processing, storage, and computing needs for cloud providers and tech giants.
Hyperscale data centre campuses are characterised by their enormous size, housing thousands of servers, miles of networking equipment, and significant power infrastructure.
Fermi America, co-founded by former US energy secretary Rick Perry, announced plans for the project in June and said geotechnical work had already begun on the Amarillo campus. The project is expected to deliver its first power by the end of 2026.
Fermi America and Westinghouse said last month they were collaborating to finalise a licence application to deploy four AP1000 reactors at the site.
