NRC accepts Fermi America's partial licence application

Fermi America submitted the first part of its combined licence application (COLA) on 17 June, for the proposed Fermi units 1- 4 to be built in Carson County, Texas, at the President Donald J Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus "commonly referred to as Project Matador". (There is already a US nuclear power plant known as Fermi - DTE Energy's Enrico Fermi 2, a single-unit boiling water reactor in Michigan, which has been in commercial operation since 1988.)

The company submitted the second portion of its COLA to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 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.

Michele Sampson, director of the Division of New Reactor Licensing in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said in a letter to Fermi America CEO Toby Neugebauer that the regulator "does not anticipate any safety issues" with the first two parts of the COLA, which reference the standard certified design for the AP1000 which has already been licensed, constructed, and operated in the USA. It has therefore docketed them for review, and expects to receive the rest of the COLA during 2026.

Fermi America is working with the NRC on a pilot programme to develop applicant-prepared Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) documentation, an innovative approach the NRC says will help to improve regulatory efficiency. The company has confirmed it is planning to submit a prepared draft site-specific EIS package by the end of February, with finalised chapters coming later in the year. The NRC said its staff will complete its acceptance review of the COLA when this third part of the application is submitted.

The company announced in August that it is collaborating with Westinghouse on the completion of the COLA.

Fermi America is planning what it says is the world's largest energy-driven artificial intelligence complex, located in Amarillo, Texas. The behind-the-meter HyperGrid campus aims to integrate large-scale nuclear power plants, small modular reactors SMRs, and other power sources including combined-cycle natural gas, utility grid power, solar power, and battery energy storage.

Cash flow

The NRC's announcement came on the same day Fermi America announced it had filed a registration document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering, as it intends to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, the company said.

_{Mesut Uzman speaking at World Nuclear Symposium (Image: World Nuclear Association)}

As well as its partnership with Westinghouse, Fermi America has signed several collaboration and cooperation agreements over recent weeks with Texas Tech University System, Hyundai E&C, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, Samsung C&T, Doosan Enerbility and ASP Isotopes. It has also announced strategic partnerships with Texas-based engineering and architectural firms Parkhill and Lee Lewis Construction.

Speaking at World Nuclear Symposium in London on 5 September, Fermi America Chief Nuclear Construction Officer Mesut Uzman explained that the company's approach is about meeting the needs of hyperscalers and AI data centres for large amounts of energy without impacting other consumers.

"They need clean power. They don't want to steal power from the grid, from the consumers. And they need power right now. We are just combining those three things."

"We are establishing this private grid … and we are providing them the power right now, because our site has a combination of power sources: we have natural gas, we have solar, we have battery systems, and then we also have nuclear, eventually."

This means that Fermi America can supply its customers even while it is continuing to build its campus, he said, and gives the company a "pretty unique" financial model "because when we're providing all those things to these customers, they are willing to sign very long term lease agreements with us, and that's the cash flow allowing us to build the nuclear power plants, which are costly investments".