A startup wants to build a massive nuclear-powered data center on public land in Utah
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
NPR has learned of plans to build a massive new data center on federal land in Utah, and this one - it comes with a twist. The proposal says it will be powered by hundreds of small nuclear reactors. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel broke the story and is in the studio now. Hey.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Hi.
SUMMERS: So, Geoff, a data center powered by its own nuclear reactors - that is not something we've heard about before. Say more.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: Yeah. This is a proposal from a nuclear startup called Valar Atomics to the Bureau of Land Management. It calls for using over 9,000 acres of federal land near Price, Utah, to build around 450 small, advanced reactors, along with facilities to make their nuclear fuel and store their waste. And those reactors would power data centers. The Bureau of Land Management confirmed it had received Valar's proposal and was, quote, "reviewing the application for completeness." Valar, for its part, told NPR - this is home, and we've spent 18 months answering our neighbors' questions before being asked. We'll keep earning that trust one answer at a time.
SUMMERS: OK. Four hundred fifty nuclear reactors - I'm not an expert, but that seems like a lot. Explain how this would work.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: Yeah - 456, if you want to get technical.
SUMMERS: (Laughter).
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: But Valar is part of this new generation of nuclear reactor companies. And rather than building these giant nuclear plants - we've all seen them, you know, with the stacks...
SUMMERS: Right.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: ...And everything. They take decades to build. They're hoping to mass produce small reactors. The idea is you sort of stack them like batteries. And that, in theory, could allow you to build much more quickly 'cause you could just start adding reactors...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: ...To a site. The documents seen by NPR suggest Valar would really be moving as fast as it could. It hopes to start its first reactors on the site as soon as 2028.
SUMMERS: Geoff, it's election season, and voter opposition to data centers has become, like, this huge political issue. How are people in Utah responding?
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: Yeah. I mean, Utah has had a lot of data center projects on the books here, and there's been pushback, frankly. You know, the location Valar is proposing is in this place called Carbon County, an area that's already very dependent on energy for its economy. There's a few coal mines there. There's some coal-fired power plants, and those both provide a lot of jobs. And so in some sense, you know, nuclear power and data centers make a lot of sense.
SUMMERS: Sure.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: This could be a new way forward for the area. But some residents are concerned. I spoke to Ashley Pruitt. She's a hairdresser in neighboring Emery County, and she's met with Valar's representatives. They've emphasized these reactor designs are inherently safe, but she has questions.
ASHLEY PRUITT: They keep telling us physics can't fail. That's why we're not afraid of this. And I love science. I love knowledge. I'm like, OK, but I'm not afraid of physics failing. I'm afraid of the engineering failing.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: And, you know, tragically, she knows about engineering failing because her father was killed in a mining accident in 2007.
PRUITT: Our community - we've already seen what happens when safety isn't taken into consideration.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: You know, the mine's operator was partly to blame, but so was lax government oversight by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. And so she wants to make sure if this goes forward, that there really is safety and oversight.
SUMMERS: Just listening to these details, this seems like a super-ambitious proposal. Is this realistic?
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: Valar is moving really fast. They got a test reactor up and running at another site about 30 miles away in less than a year. And in July, they actually used it to power an Nvidia microchip, like the type that get used to sort of run AI. But there's a big difference between a test reactor powering one chip and hundreds of small reactors to power data centers with potentially hundreds of thousands of these chips. You know, even if they could get the production line going, there's still numerous approvals they have to go through. BLM needs to sign off on the land, and in its statement, it also told NPR the public will be allowed to weigh in on the decision.
SUMMERS: We've been speaking with NPR's Geoff Brumfiel. He broke this story. Thanks for joining us.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL: Thank you, Juana.
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