FERMI America Files for IPO
NRC Accepts Partial Fermi America Combined License Application
Urenco USA Produces First Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) With New Cascade
Aalo Signs 1st Fuel Deal with Urenco for LEU
Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers at INL
Atomic Canyon Partners with INL to Develop First Nuclear Industry AI Benchmarks
NASA Glenn Picked to Drive Development of Nuclear Power for the Moon
China Boosts Advanced Fast Neutron Reactor Design to 1,000 MW
DOE Allocates $35M to Advance Emerging Energy Tech
DOE Announces $134 Million for Fusion R&D Projects
FERMI America Files for IPO
Fermi America Outlines Risks As It Files For IPO For Nuclear-Powered Data Center
‘Project Matador’ in Texas could see deployment of four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors in the 2030s
In the meantime the firm will build natural gas plants and solar panel farms produce power
(NucNet contributed to this report) Fermi America, a company founded by former US energy secretary Rick Perry which is aiming to build one of the world’s largest data center complexes powered partly by nuclear plants, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO).
Previously, the firm announced it had raised $100 million in Series A funding with a $250 million loan facility. The firm plans to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market once the IPO is released to investors.
The company, which launched in stealth mode last January, is planning a “hypergrid” campus – essentially a massive gas, nuclear and solar complex that could deliver its first power to onsite data center over the next several years.
It said the project to build the “Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus” at Texas Tech University near Amarillo, TX, will be known as “Project Matador”.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company did not set a date for the IPO nor indicate the level of funding it was seeking to obtain from it. The spaces for the numbers on the “Offering Page,” Pg 28, are blank.
Financial Risks
The financial requirements for the entire project, including gas and solar projects, over time are likely to wind up being north of $50 billion with the four Westinghouse reactors coming in at total of at least $30-$35 billion from the time they break ground to completion over a five-to-ten year period. By comparison, a South Korean consortium built four 1,400 MW PWRs in the UAE for $24 billion over a 12 year period.
Fermi said it is in the “pre-approval” process with the Department of Energy’s loan office, which Fermi indicated it is looking to“finance key components” of the project’s energy infrastructure.
However, Elon Musk’s DOGE boys shredded the staffing for the office leaving a question in the debris field of who’s minding the store. Many of the highly skilled and experienced personnel, including its director, were fired without cause or left the agency for greener fields. For an administration that wants to support nuclear energy with rapid implementation of its four executive orders, restoring the Loan Program Office to carry out its mission needs to be a top priority.
Costs for steel, concrete, and long lead time systems and components in the 2030s will all be under pressure as other U.S. large developers of full size reactors and SMRs hit suppliers with their orders for RPVs, steam systems, generators, and transformers, among others.
Multiple Risk Factors Called Out in the IPO
FERMI America warned of multiple risk factors, saying it is a development-stage company with no operating history or historical revenue, and “we face execution risk across all major components of our business”.
The filing said: “We have not yet constructed our facilities or entered into any binding contract with any tenants, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so in the future.
“Our limited commercial operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our prospects, the risks and challenges we may encounter and our total potential addressable market.”
Other risk factors include obtaining capital, getting regulatory approvals and having adequate materials and workers.
A key set of risks is getting customers for the power and fuel for its natural gas plants. At this time the firm says it is in negotiations with data centers customers to in nonbinding MOUs. Also, the firm is lining up suppliers of the natural gas it will need for its intial power generation operations.
Some experts are skeptical that FERMI will achieve all of its stated goals. According to a report in EENEWS, Joshua Rhodes, a grid expert in Austin, TX, said, “whether they get all the way to 11 GW is an open question.”
Fermi in the SEC filing said that with existing water, fiberoptic and natural gas infrastructure readily accessible, it is uniquely-positioned to deploy an integrated mix of natural gas, nuclear and solar energy power to enable grid-independent, high-density computing power on the Project Matador site.
First Phase Could Require $2 Billion
The first phase of the project to build the initial plant site infrastructure and a solar panel farm by 2027 could require $2 billion. Fermi America announced plans for the project in June and said geotechnical work had already begun on the Amarillo campus.
The filing said Project Matador is expected to be anchored by what could become the nation’s second-largest nuclear generation complex with capacity to house up to four AP1000 pressurized water reactors developed by Westinghouse.
Ultimately, Fermi America wants to generate 11 GW of power at the site, enough to power Manhattan.
The company recently filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for deployment of up to four Westinghouse nuclear reactors at the site, saying initial feedback from NRC staff has been supportive.
In a statement on 09/08/25, the NRC said it is exploring “innovative approaches” to environmental reviews, including through a pilot program with Fermi.
First Reactor Could Operate In 2032
The project is initially focusing on gas to build 1 million square feet of data center capacity by the end of next year, with support from solar, batteries and grid-supplied power from the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). About 27% of the power from the SPP comes from coal plants and natural gas is about 32%.
FERMI America plans to build a second one million square feet with support from an onsite gas plant. A nuclear unit would begin operating at the site in 2032, according to the filing. Time will tell whether this ambitious milestone can be met. Westinghouse has a lot to prove at the Fermi project that it can hit cost and schedule targets.
By 2038, Fermi envisions nuclear powering 56% of the complex, with gas at 43%. Most would be “behind the meter,” meaning the technology companies would draw power directly from co-located power plants.
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NRC Accepts Partial Fermi America Combined License Application
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has accepted for review two initial submissions of a Combined License application from Fermi America LLC, containing sufficient design information for four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors near Amarillo in Carson County, TX.
The company submitted the first portion of the application on 06/17/25, providing general, financial and environmental information. Fermi America submitted the second portion on 08/20/25, 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 ongoing efforts to improve regulatory efficiency, the NRC is exploring innovative approaches to environmental reviews. The agency is working with Fermi America in a pilot program to develop an applicant-prepared document under the National Environmental Policy Act. Fermi America is expected to submit site-specific information throughout 2026. The proposed reactors would be part of a hybrid energy and data infrastructure project.
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Urenco USA Produces First Low-Enriched Uranium With New Cascade
Aim is to increase capacity at New Mexico facility by 15% by 2027
(NucNet) Urenco USA has begun producing low-enriched uranium (LEU) with its second new cascade of gas centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility in New Mexico. Urenco USA brought the initial cascade of the expansion online in May, representing the first capacity added to the site in several years.
The company said it had started the cascade ahead of schedule and built it on budget, continuing its expansion of US enrichment capacity in support of the country’s goal of strengthening the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.
Urenco USA will add 700,000 separative work units (SWU) of new capacity at the site between 2025-2027, which will increase the plant’s capacity by 15%.
SWUs are the standard measure of the effort required in a uranium enrichment facility to separate uranium-235 (U-235) from uranium-238 (U-238), thereby increasing the concentration of U-235.
Urenco USA has been selected by the US Department of Energy for contracts to provide enrichment services. Washington says the company’s work is crucial for providing the fuel needed for US power generation and for developing future advanced nuclear technologies.
The facility represents a commercial investment of private capital in US manufacturing totalling more than $5 billion. Urenco, one of the three major enrichment providers in the world, operates centrifuge plants in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA. It reported a global production capacity of 17,300 tSW/a at the end of 2024.
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Aalo Signs 1st Fuel Deal with Urenco for LEU
In July Aalo Atomics signed a historic commercial contract with Urenco for the delivery of low-enriched uranium (LEU). The uranium, in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), will be fabricated into fuel pins powering the Aalo-X experimental reactor. The contract is the first time a Western company has commercially sourced nuclear fuel for a next-generation power plant.
Most existing light water reactors use uranium enriched to 3% to 5% U235. The 5% material to be used in Aalo’s reactor is in line with today’s commercial standards.
Aalo has staked out a competitive advantage relative to other SMRs. Many of the advanced reactor designs for SMRs will depend on HALEU fuel which between 9%-to-19% U235. These firms are dependent on the Department of Energy for the fuel which is in short supply and will remain that way through at least 2030. The limited domestic production is forcing SMR developers to compete for small portions of DOE-allocated HALEU.
By contrast, Aalo is buying its fuel on commercial terms. This move lets it sidestep supply chain bottlenecks, builds momentum for a resilient Western fuel market, and removes dependence on government sponsored down blended uranium.
A company spokesperson said Aalo’s ambition is not to build one experimental reactor but to deploy hundreds of Aalo pods to power data centers with clean, reliable energy. That means the firm’s fuel supply lines must be able to scale with us. Urenco supplies enrichment services to more than 50 customers in 20 countries. This scale gives Aalo confidence that it will have nuclear fuel available when it needs it.
The Aalo X demonstration reactor will operate on 5%-enriched UO2 (LEU). Its commercial Aalo Pod will run on 8% enriched UO2 (LEU+) while using the same standardized fuel form. This increased enrichment level will improve fuel performance and extend the lifespans of its reactors, while maintaining fuel assembly design from demonstration to deployment.
There are multiple potential partners who can fabricate UO2 fuel rods from UF6. These experienced fuel fabricators can meet Aalo’s needs as we grow. This strategy lets it focus on scaling reactor manufacturing rather than diverting capital into complex, time-intensive fuel fabrication plants.
The spokesperson added that currently there is surplus global enrichment capacity. Using commoditized LEU reduces project risk, stabilizes our cost structure, and enables Aalo to offer competitively priced electricity. Stabilizing costs is particularly important for smaller reactors where fuel is a larger fraction of total cost.
Urenco will deliver Aalo’s first fuel shipment in late 2025/early 2026.
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Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at INL
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Request for Application (RFA) seeking proposals from U.S. companies to build and power AI data centers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This is the first solicitation released to leverage federal land assets to quickly deploy AI data centers and energy generation projects. DOE said in its press statement that the action will drive private sector funding, grow the nation’s AI computing capabilities, and help scale-up emerging power sources to reliably meet future energy demands.
The Idaho National Laboratory is one of four sites identified by the Department for AI infrastructure and generation projects on federal land. DOE’s Idaho Operations Office is now seeking proposals from U.S. companies to potentially enter into one or more long-term leasing agreements at the site that would be solely funded by the applicants.
The DOE site office previously identified approximately 44,000 acres of land for AI infrastructure projects and will give priority to applications that integrate innovative energy generation and storage projects with AI data centers, which could include advanced nuclear reactors, enhanced geothermal systems, and cold underground thermal energy storage.
Applicants will be responsible for the costs of building, operating, and decommissioning each infrastructure project and must secure utility interconnection agreements for new power generation and storage systems. Proposals will be competitively evaluated for technological readiness, financial viability, and detailed plans to complete regulatory and permitting requirements.
“The United States must win the global AI race to ensure a higher quality of life for every American,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Mike Goff. “Today’s solicitation accelerates President Trump’s aggressive pace to deliver the necessary AI infrastructure and reliable power assets needed to transform scientific research that can help us solve some of the most complex challenges facing the world today.”
Initial applications are due by November 7, 2025, with subsequent applications allowed on a rolling basis. DOE will sponsor a virtual industry day event on September 26, 2025 to learn more about the solicitation process. Registration is required and potential attendees should email Robert Coleman at [email protected] for more information.
Additional information on the RFA can be found HERE.
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Atomic Canyon Partners with INL to Develop First Nuclear Industry AI Benchmarks
Collaboration Creates Standards for Safe AI Adoption in Nuclear Operations
Atomic Canyon, the developer of AI-powered search and generative AI tools for the nuclear power industry, announced a strategic partnership with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to develop and publicly release the first comprehensive benchmark suite for evaluating retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and large language models (LLMs) in nuclear applications.
The partnership will establish critical standards for AI adoption in nuclear facility operations, addressing an industry need for objective evaluation methods for generative AI systems in nuclear environments.
Setting the Standard for Nuclear AI
Nuclear facilities and national laboratories store decades of operating logs, maintenance records, and engineering drawings—much of it trapped in scanned PDFs or proprietary repositories. The new benchmark suite will enable nuclear operators to evaluate AI systems that can access public nuclear documentation through retrieval-augmented generation techniques.
Leveraging National Laboratory Expertise
INL will contribute its unique nuclear subject-matter expertise and access to curated public datasets. The benchmark tasks will focus on real-world nuclear workflows, including document retrieval, regulatory compliance checks, and answering technical questions.
Addressing Critical Industry Needs
The benchmark suite addresses a fundamental challenge in nuclear AI deployment: evaluating systems that must work with both public nuclear documentation and facility-specific technical data. Existing AI evaluation benchmarks are insufficient for the nuclear sector’s unique requirements for safety, regulatory compliance, and security.
Over six months, the project will curate datasets, define benchmark tasks and evaluation metrics, and produce comprehensive documentation, including a technical summary, for community distribution via open-source repositories.
Christopher Ritter, Division Director of Scientific Computing & AI and director of the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence (DICE) at Idaho National Laboratory, said: “This partnership with Atomic Canyon will establish the benchmarks needed to effectively deploy AI across the nuclear enterprise. By creating standardized evaluation methods, we’re enabling the industry to confidently adopt AI technologies that can accelerate nuclear energy deployment for America.”
“This partnership represents a pivotal moment for the nuclear industry’s digital transformation,” said Trey Lauderdale, CEO of Atomic Canyon.
“Nuclear facilities require the highest standards of safety and compliance, and our collaboration with INL will establish the gold standard for evaluating AI systems in nuclear environments. These benchmarks will give utilities, regulators, and technology vendors a common framework for ensuring AI systems meet the rigorous demands of nuclear operations while maintaining the absolute highest levels of safety and security.”
All data, definitions, and criteria will be released under open-source public licenses, ensuring the nuclear and AI communities can benefit from this foundational work. Atomic Canyon will develop and release the accompanying evaluation software and tools under permissive open-source licenses.
About Atomic Canyon
Atomic Canyon develops AI-powered search and generative AI tools specifically for the nuclear power industry. The company’s flagship product, Neutron Enterprise, provides AI-powered capabilities across vast repositories of technical documentation at nuclear facilities. By securely connecting to internal data sources and external authoritative technical and regulatory data sources, Neutron Enterprise enables nuclear professionals to access critical information in seconds rather than hours. Atomic Canyon recently raised $7 million in seed funding led by Energy Impact Partners to accelerate deployments across the nuclear industry. For more information, visit http://www.atomic-canyon.com.
About Idaho National Laboratory
Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. INL is the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development, and also performs research in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and the environment. For more information, visit http://www.inl.gov.
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NASA Glenn Picked to Drive Development of Nuclear Power for the Moon
Experts say billion dollar project could bring in new business to Northeast Ohio
The NASA Glenn Research Center in northeast Ohio has been selected to oversee a major space project that could bring nuclear energy to the moon, potentially involving billions of dollars in funding. Glenn Research Center, which includes the Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, beat out other NASA facilities across the country to lead the development of nuclear power systems for lunar missions.
NASA will partner with private companies to build a system capable of generating at least 100 kilowatts of power on the moon. That amount of energy is enough to power around 80 homes in Ohio at the same time. The space agency will also help private companies clear regulatory obstacles to facilitate the development of this lunar nuclear power system.
Matt Dolan from Team NEO, a regional economic development group, said the project could bring significant business opportunities and economic growth to the area.
“It means if they want to be part of the nuclear effort to bring power to the moon, to propel to Mars, to communicate, all that happens here — If you want to be a part of making that happen, you have to come here.”
The decision comes after state and local leaders pushed earlier this year not only for NASA Glenn to avoid proposed cuts made in the White House’s proposed NASA budget, but also to be the future headquarters for NASA. Congress has since proposed rejecting the bulk of the White House’s proposed cuts to NASA.
Technical Notes on the NASA Nuclear Program
According to the ANS Nuclear Newswire for 09/02/25 the August 14 RFI asked companies for feedback on their interests, risks, capabilities, and preferred funding mechanisms for work on the FSP specifications. The RFI tells parties planning to respond that an RFP is expected to folllow. Those specs include the following:
Schedule—Reactors should be prepared to launch by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030 (that is, the last quarter of calendar year 2029).
Mass—Reactor designers can assume the use of a heavy-class lander that can carry up to 15 metric tons. (In April 2024, NASA announced that work was underway on large cargo landers capable of delivering up to 15 metric tons of cargo for Artemis moon missions.)
Power—The reactor must have a 100-kWe output using a closed Brayton cycle power conversion system. The NASA directive says the Brayton cycle is specified to “reduce risk and ensure extensibility to higher power systems.”
Financing—The directive said that financing arrangements could change, with “flexibility to NASA to award contract value based on proposed industry capability,” and with “potential industry cost-sharing (i.e., in exchange for industry owning and operating the reactor power once operational).”
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China Boosts Advanced Fast Neutron Reactor Design to 1,000 MW
China’s recently announced the CFR-1000, a fast neutron nuclear reactor, which is based on the twin CFR-600 advanced reactors China as built to date. The design legacy for both the 600 MW and 1000 MW designs is the the Russian BN-600.
Prior coverage on this blog
Currently, the design is still a “paper reactor” which is awaiting regulatory approval and allocation of funding to build the first of a kind unit.
The CFR-1000 represents a new era of fourth-generation nuclear reactors that utilize fast neutrons rather than the slow neutrons employed in most thermal reactors today. By eliminating the need for moderators like water, the reactor relies on high-speed neutrons to sustain nuclear fission. This shift has profound implications for both fuel efficiency and energy output.
Fast neutron reactors pave the way for closed-loop fuel cycles, offering the capability to “breed” new fuel from non-fissile materials such as uranium-238. The reactor also produces the weapons grade isotope of plutonium (PU-239) which can be used to make nuclear weapons. China has been experimenting with using plutonium from its fast reactors to make mixed oxide fuel (MOX) where the plutonium replaces U235 in fuel assemblies for commercial nuclear reactors. So far China has not yet committed to large scale reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from any reactors for this purpose.
The international community is also closely monitoring the CFR-1000’s development, not only due to the production of plutonium by the sodium cooled reactor.
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DOE Allocates $35M to Advance Emerging Energy Tech
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $35 million for 42 projects through DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) to help move emerging energy technologies related to grid security, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and advanced manufacturing from DOE National Laboratories, plants, and sites to market. The selected projects will leverage over $21 million in cost share from private and public partners, bringing total funding to more than $57.5 million.
The TCF program, managed through the Office of Technology Commercialization’s Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness (CLIMR) Lab Call, strengthens America’s economic and national security by supporting public-private partnerships that maximize taxpayer investments, advance American innovation, and ensure the United States stays ahead in global competitiveness.
This year’s selections span across 19 DOE National Labs, plants, and sites. The full list of the 2025 selections is available here.
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DOE Announces $134 Million for Fusion R&D Projects
Funding for the next round of Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives and the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) awards will enhance connections between private fusion industry, DOE national labs, and universities
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $134 million in funding for two programs designed to secure U.S. leadership in emerging fusion technologies and innovation.
DOE is announcing $128 million for the Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) collaboratives. The funding was awarded to seven teams that are focused on creating a fusion energy science and technology innovation ecosystem by forming virtual, centrally managed teams.
The teams selected have a collective goal of bridging the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program’s basic science research programs and growing fusion industries.
DOE is also announcing $6.1 million in funding for the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program. With this funding, DOE has selected 20 projects that accelerate private-sector fusion energy development by reducing barriers to collaboration between businesses and national laboratories or universities.
The projects selected include research in materials science, laser technology development, high temperature superconducting magnet assessment, artificial intelligence (AI) learning for fusion modeling and simulation, and enabling technologies to move toward achieving economical fusion energy.
Fusion has the potential to provide abundant, reliable energy by replicating the same process that powers the sun and stars. Following the passage of the Energy Act of 2020, FES has sought to accelerate the viability of commercial fusion energy in partnership with the private sector by establishing several industry-relevant programs like INFUSE and the FIRE Collaboratives.
These initiatives represent a significant step forward in advancing fusion energy research, maintaining U.S. leadership in fusion, strengthening U.S. based manufacturing and supply chains and supporting the development of technologies crucial for national security, energy security, and defense.
A full list of projects and additional information can be found on the Fusion Energy Sciences program homepage.
Background on INFUSE
INFUSE solicited proposals from the fusion industry and selected projects for one-year awards. The selected projects ranging between $100,000 and $500,000 each were selected through a competitive peer review process managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Following competitive peer-review, the Department of Energy selected the INFUSE teams for award.
Background on FIRE
DOE expects to invest up to $220 million in total funding for the FIRE Collaboratives spanning over four years in duration, with $31 million in Fiscal Year 2025 dollars and outyear funding remains contingent on congressional appropriations.
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