Fermi America announces three new partnerships

Westinghouse deal: According to Westinghouse, the 5,769-acre site in Amarillo, Texas, will be the deployment locale for four new AP1000s.

News of a Westinghouse-Fermi collaboration was first reported by the Washington Post at the end of June but remained unconfirmed officially until this newest announcement. In its press release, Westinghouse specified that the next step in the collaboration will be to finalize the combined operating license application (COLA) for the four reactors, which will be reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Westinghouse also announced its intention to support Fermi through the NRC review process and its plan to take part in developing a “long-term deployment strategy for the site.”

“Partnering with Westinghouse, the global leader behind the fully licensed AP1000 design, marks a critical milestone in our project execution. Their technical excellence and proven delivery give us confidence in achieving regulatory clearance and advancing our deployment strategy efficiently and safely,” said Mesut Uzman, chief nuclear construction officer of Fermi America.

Other agreements: Fermi’s other new partnerships will help facilitate the buildout of the Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.

According to Fermi, Parkhill, a company that describes itself as a “full-service design firm” with multidisciplinary expertise in design, engineering, and architecture, will be in charge of infrastructural design for the campus, balancing regional needs with the company’s extensive expansion plans.

Lee Lewis Construction will be in charge of executing those designs and providing general construction management. The construction firm has been working with Texas Tech for more than 50 years—a commonality it has with Parkhill, which has worked with the university for more than 70 years.

"When we partnered with the Texas Tech University System and signed the lease on the best site in the country, every big national firm started beating on our door. But being locals, we understood that you simply can't do better than Lee Lewis and Parkhill, and we are excited to be one of their biggest builds to date, right here at home,” said Fermi America cofounder Toby Neugebauer.