Data centers planned at four DOE sites
At the end of his July 15 speech at the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, President Trump promised that “a lot more [was] going to be announced in the coming week” for the energy and AI sectors.
Those announcements are now here with the back-to-back unveiling of a new AI action plan, a new AI executive order (EO), and the official selection of sites for data center development on federal lands.
The roadmap to the future of domestic AI development is coming into sharper focus—and for this administration, it’s clear that nuclear will play a significant role in enabling that future.
DOE builds: The Department of Energy issued a press release on July 24 stating that it is pursuing the siting of AI infrastructure built in collaboration with private industry on DOE lands to accelerate AI development. It has chosen Idaho National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Reservation, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and the Savannah River Site for data center projects. The press release explains that the move is in line with Trump’s most recent AI EO as well his EO on advanced reactors.
These plans are laid out in greater detail in a request for information from the DOE’s Office of Policy that was published in April. The RFI explains that DOE sites offer several potential advantages for the buildout of AI infrastructure, such as “access to or the potential to build power infrastructure, secure locations, and opportunities for technological collaboration with DOE research facilities.”
Among the criteria for site viability, on-site energy development was a key consideration. The DOE anticipates that sites may power data centers with co-located nuclear reactors, among other advanced energy technologies (especially geothermal and energy storage systems).
The AI EO: Trump’s newest EO, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,” was released on July 23. It marks an easing of federal regulatory burdens to facilitate data center buildout as an administration priority.
The EO, which defines data center projects as facilities that require greater than 100 MW of new load dedicated to AI, directs the secretary of commerce to launch an initiative to provide financial support to new projects, directs the Environmental Protection Agency to streamline permitting, and marks nuclear as one of the energy technologies that will be used to support data centers.
It also revokes an AI EO signed by President Biden this past January that, instead of pushing for reform, called for development to “proceed without raising energy costs for American consumers and businesses.”
The plan: Also released on July 23, “America’s AI Action Plan” lays out in 28 pages a more detailed roadmap for the developments promised.
Alongside more details on deregulation, the plan highlights the removal of “ideological bias” from large language models; the training of an AI workforce; the export of American technology abroad; and the prioritization of fission, fusion, and geothermal as key goals.
