Fermi America and Westinghouse Electric Company are collaborating to finalise the Combined Operating Licence Application (COLA) to deploy four AP1000 reactors at Fermi America’s planned Amarillo hyperscale campus.
Under the agreement, the companies will partner to complete the COLA documentation that was submitted by Fermi America to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in June and support the review process for approval. The companies will also work together to develop a long-term deployment strategy for the site.
“Fermi’s decision to collaborate with Westinghouse answers President Trump’s call to ‘Make America Nuclear Again’,” noted Fermi America Co-Founder Toby Neugebauer. “Westinghouse sees what we see: being co-located with Pantex – which is overseen by the Department of Energy and has stewarded America’s nuclear arsenal since 1951, in a region known for it’s skilled, hard-working energy labour force who all share the same Friday Night Lights football district, make us a premier place to build safe, new nuclear power.”
Mesut Uzman, Chief Nuclear Construction Officer, Fermi America said partnering with Westinghouse “marks a critical milestone in our project execution”. Dan Lipman, President, Energy Systems, at Westinghouse said: “We look forward to a productive partnership with Fermi America to bring these AP1000 units online at the pace needed to solidify America’s energy dominance.” He added that the AP1000 technology is well-positioned to power next-generation AI data centres.
Six AP1000 units are operational worldwide – four in China and two in the US with 12 under construction and five under contract. Programs in Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria have also selected the technology, with other sites under consideration in Europe and North America.
However, the AP1000s in the US faced serious delays and budget overruns. Georgia’s Vogtle units 3&4 were completed seven years late and $17bn over budget. The Chinese units were also delayed. At the other projects, Westinghouse contracts other companies to undertake the actual construction. Fermi America and Westinghouse say they will use the lessons learned from those projects to ensure they meet the Amarillo site’s 2032 target while addressing regulatory and economic challenges.
