A startup wants to build a massive nuclear-powered data center on public land in Utah
Startup Valar Atomics plans "Project Beehive," a massive nuclear-powered data center with 456 small reactors near Price, Utah, on federal and state land. The proposal, which also includes nuclear fuel and waste storage, is undergoing review by the Bureau of Land Management and has prompted alarm among local environmental activists due to its scale and impact on public lands.
Valar Atomics, a startup, is proposing "Project Beehive," a large-scale data center development powered by 456 small nuclear reactors, to be built on over 9,000 acres of federal land near Price, Utah, administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The project also seeks an additional 650 acres of state land and includes facilities for nuclear fuel production and waste storage. With a projected power output of 9.6 gigawatts, the complex aims for non-nuclear construction to begin by late 2024 and the first reactors online by 2028, with full completion by 2032.
The ambitious proposal has triggered concerns among Utah-based environmental groups and local activists. Neal Clark, wildlands director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, voiced alarm over the scale and the use of public lands, citing potential precedents for future development and environmental implications. The Bureau of Land Management's Utah office confirmed it is reviewing Valar Atomics' application for completeness and emphasized that the public will have opportunities for input during the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.
Valar Atomics, led by CEO Isaiah Taylor, has actively engaged with and benefited from regulatory reforms enacted by the Trump administration to expedite the development of small modular reactors (SMRs). Taylor, who was present for executive order signings, saw his company accepted into a Department of Energy Reactor Pilot Program, leading to the rapid approval and testing of their Ward 250 reactor. This test unit, transported by the U.S. military, achieved criticality in the Utah desert and successfully generated electricity for an Nvidia microchip.
Despite Valar's focus on safety and community engagement, the immense scale of Project Beehive, which far exceeds recent US nuclear plant additions, and its reliance on SMRs for phased development, continues to be a point of contention for activists. They question the implications of such a massive industrial undertaking on public lands, viewing it as a concern that transcends local community boundaries due to its potential long-term impacts on land use and the environment.