NRC Draft EIS Leans Toward Licensing Fermi America's Four AP1000s for a Behind-the-Meter Data Center Campus

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission published a draft environmental impact statement on October 9 for Fermi America’s application to build four AP1000 reactors at Project Matador, a data center campus in Carson County, Texas, next to the Department of Energy’s Pantex Plant ^[1]. NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation is that the combined license be issued, contingent on the safety review ^[1]. The reactors are not meant for the grid. The NRC’s own scoping notice describes them as “a baseload power source directly integrated into Project Matador’s behind-the-meter data infrastructure,” at 4 GW ^[2].

This is a federal licensing step, and an early one. It is also the first draft EIS written by the applicant under the NRC’s pilot for that approach ^[1,3].

What the NRC put out on October 9

The notice, FR Doc. 2026-20742, covers Dockets 05200051 through 05200054 and opens comments under Docket ID NRC-2026-0100 until November 23 ^[1]. The draft itself is ADAMS Accession No. ML26261A417 ^[1]. It weighs two choices: issue the combined license, or deny it, which is the no-action alternative ^[1].

The staff based its preliminary recommendation on its own independent environmental review, its assessment of the applicant-prepared document, consultation with federal, state and local agencies and Indian Tribes, and the comments taken during scoping ^[1]. That recommendation covers environmental effects only. The notice ties it to “successful completion of the safety review and unless safety issues mandate otherwise” ^[1].

The application has been in pieces since 2025. Fermi America filed the general, financial and environmental part on June 17, 2025, and the non-site-specific safety analysis chapters on August 20, 2025; the NRC accepted the filing on September 5, 2025, along with Fermi’s commitment to the environmental pilot ^[1]. Scoping opened March 20, 2026, with comments due April 20 ^[2].

Under the pilot, an applicant may draft its own environmental documents under the lead agency’s supervision, and the agency must independently evaluate the result and “assume responsibility for its content” ^[2]. World Nuclear News reported in March that Fermi America is the first private company in the program, which the NRC expects to cut its in-house review time ^[7].

A data center purpose, in the NRC’s words

The NRC’s statement of purpose is “to provide onsite energy generation for the Project Matador campus” ^[2]. The need, in the scoping notice, is national demand for reliable power “to support large-scale digital infrastructure, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data center operations,” and the reactors would help meet growing demand for “hyperscale data center-aligned, non-interruptible, and scalable power” ^[2].

That framing sets what the alternatives analysis has to answer. A plant built for one campus’s private grid is judged against that campus’s needs, and the no-action alternative is simply a denied license ^[1,2].

How big is the load behind the license?

Here the documents diverge. The NRC’s March notice describes a campus that “may include up to 30 million square feet of hyperscale computing space and approximately 11 gigawatts (GWs) of total energy generation capacity” ^[2]. Fermi’s own releases now say the project “is expected to ramp to approximately 17 GW,” with the qualifier “Subject to entering into binding customer agreements” ^[4]. The ANS account notes the same growth, from 11 GW with about 4.4 GW of nuclear to closer to 17 GW ^[3].

The binding agreements so far add up to one lease. On August 10, Fermi announced that its subsidiary Fermi Campus 1 LLC had signed with TensorWave TEX1, LLC for a facility “supported by 222 megawatts (MW) of total facility power,” delivered in phases starting in the second half of 2027, with an initial 15-year term and about $6.5 billion in expected revenue ^[6]. Expansion rights would take the partnership past 650 MW ^[6].

The lease is not yet effective. Its closing conditions include guaranties, board approvals and “project-level financing sufficient to fund construction of the leased premises,” and on September 22 the parties moved the closing date from September 30 to October 31 ^[5]. On October 13, Fermi announced that AMD had signed a credit support agreement for the 222 MW phase-one lease, which Fermi called “a key milestone toward securing project financing,” plus a framework for expansion of up to 650 MW in phases two and three ^[4]. The release does not state the amount or term of AMD’s support ^[4].

The application says 4 GW of reactors. The one signed customer says 222 MW, with delivery starting years before the first reactor’s 2032 target that World Nuclear News reported ^[6,7]. Fermi describes the rest of the campus supply as a combined-cycle gas project, utility grid power, solar and batteries, all behind the meter on “a private grid built and operated on site” ^[4]. Which of those sources would carry the early phases is not something the NRC notice addresses.

Where Fermi, Amarillo and the Ogallala’s defenders stand

Fermi’s case is speed. Chief Executive Lee McIntire said in the AMD release, “We have the land, the permits, the water, the power equipment, and the fiber network that give us distinct performance advantages” ^[4]. TensorWave chief executive Darrick Horton said in August that “Power is the critical constraint in AI infrastructure” ^[6].

The water comes from the city of Amarillo, and that is where the local argument has been loudest. The Texas Tribune reported in October 2025 that Fermi asked the city for 2.5 million gallons a day, with talk of up to 10 million, against city use of about 50 million gallons a day according to Mayor Cole Stanley ^[8]. Part of that supply comes from the Ogallala Aquifer, which is being drawn down faster than it recharges ^[8]. Will Masters of the nonprofit Ogallala Life told the Tribune that trading more aquifer drawdown for a limited number of jobs is a poor bargain; resident Kendra Kay, part of a group opposing the sale, said residents wanted more community conversations with Fermi ^[8]. Fermi’s community lead, former Amarillo mayor Trent Sisemore, told the Tribune the company planned a recirculating cooling system that uses less water and would adopt better technology if it became available ^[8]. Stanley said the city’s priority was protecting its water and getting a good deal if it sold any ^[8].

The draft EIS is where those points now go on the federal record. The scoping notice lists surface and groundwater among the resources the EIS must analyze ^[2].

What I’m watching

November 23: the comment deadline on the draft EIS ^[1]. The comments will show whether water users, Pantex neighbors and the data center industry engage with a federal review that names data centers as its purpose. According to the ANS, the NRC is aiming for a final EIS in December ^[3]; the safety review has no published date in the record this column draws on.

October 31: the TensorWave lease closing date ^[5]. It is the first test of whether the campus’s paper load becomes a contracted, financed one.