A team called Fermi America LLC, led by Texas political insider Toby Neugebauer, has just applied for a license to build and operate a four-reactor nuclear power plant outside of Amarillo, Texas, to be known as the “President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.” When completed it will be the second most powerful nuclear station in the US, after Plant Vogtle in Georgia, by a small margin of about 60 MW.

Called Project Matador, the plan is to supply “behind the meter” power consumption for “hyperscaler” and AI data centers to be co-located on the site. Only limited power transfers are planned to be made with the wider state grid for balancing and backup, so the average Texan will not be getting any of the power output. While the application is currently for four reactors with an output of 4 GW, the total campus demand is projected to reach 11 GW. There is no explanation for the difference between site electrical production and projected consumption. There will be some natural gas-fired generation along with some solar and batteries, but those are auxiliaries and won’t be relied upon to meet base needs. To minimize water consumption, the units will have air cooling rather than cooling towers or dedicated lakes.

(Fair use image from a document lodged with the government.)

The almost 6,000-acre site has been leased for 99 years from Texas Tech University, which means from the State of Texas. The site is adjacent to the Department of Energy’s existing Amarillo Pantex plant to the northeast of the city off Highway 60. Pantex is where our nuclear arsenal has been built and serviced over the last 70 years. This choice of location is claimed to offer benefits both in site security and in prior understanding of local geology, meteorology, and environmental issues. By leasing the land under “sovereign” ownership of the State of Texas, many potentially vexing issues, such as water and mineral rights, zoning, etc., can be quickly and quietly resolved.

The reactors chosen are Westinghouse AP1000 units, which already have a generic NRC approval and have construction and operational experience in Georgia. The first AP1000 unit went online in mid-2023 after the US government required a major redesign soon after the design was completed, contracts let, and construction commenced. This was so that the units could withstand a direct, targeted hit from a commercial airliner. That resulted in substantial thickening of the walls and roofs around sensitive parts of the plant, along with ventilation barriers to block the propagation of the pressurized flaming jet fuel within the plant and perhaps other sensitive design modifications. The Texas units from the start will incorporate the aircraft impact design features that caused such delay and expense at Plant Vogtle.

Construction will be financed by take-or-pay contracts from the data center and by leasing of the land to the customers for their facilities. Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) forms of sub-leasing are expected to augment revenue from power sales. From the project status documented in the NRC submittals, Fermi America LLC may have already put in $10 to $50 million for organization and development costs.

So, who is Toby Neugebauer? From his Wikipedia page, he is a well-to-do and well-connected Texan Republican. He has been an investment banker with Kidder, Peabody, and has organized or sat on the boards of multiple private equity firms. His father was a congressman from Texas, and the son made a substantial contribution to former Texas Governor Rick Perry during the latter’s 2012 presidential run. Perry later served as Secretary of Energy in Trump’s first administration and is considered by the Texas press as the master mind and wheeler-dealer behind Project Matador. Neugebauer also established a $10 million PAC in 2016 to support the presidential aspirations of Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Will this project get off the drawing board and see construction “turn dirt?” The people behind it seem to have done their homework, especially with the land lease, and appear to have solid political backing at the state level. While the potential clients haven’t yet been announced, if one wants to build a hyperscaler AI data center that needs enormous amounts of reliable electrical power, the “President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus” looks like a pretty solid bet.

Joseph Somsel is a degreed nuclear engineer with an MBA and 50+ years of experience in the business. He was a volunteer with the short-lived California state presidential campaign organization for Rick Perry in 2012.