- A new government initiative seeks to open up 16 federal sites for AI infrastructure
- That includes development of not only data centers but also nuclear power generation
- Startup Aalo Atomics, on the cusp of closing a $100 million Series B, is among those looking to use the program to speed deployments
The Trump administration really, really wants to win the AI race. So much so that it is offering up key federal sites for the development and deployment of new AI infrastructure - that is, data centers and nuclear power generation facilities.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) put out a request for information (RFI) outlining plans to open 16 federally owned sites for data center and nuclear development. The sites are located in Colorado, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
The RFI seeks feedback from interested parties on which sites might be the most appealing; what data center designs and operational models might be deployed at these sites; approaches to co-locating energy generation; and any potential hurdles to locating AI infrastructure on government land. Comments are due by May 7, 2025.
The goal of the initiative is to “unleash Federal resources to build out the data resources needed for an AI-powered future,” White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said in a press release about the RFI.
Companies who jump onboard can seemingly sidestep lengthy NRC review processes. That’s because – according to the RFI – the DOE has already completed site characterization and nuclear permitting work for some of the locations in question. The Idaho National Laboratory (coincidentally the birthplace of nuclear power) is one of these.
Asked about the RFI, an NRC spokesperson told Fierce "The RFI is focused on data centers, as opposed to commercial nuclear power plants, which are licensed under the NRC's jurisdiction. DOE is in the best position to discuss how it would apply its existing environmental and site-specific information for data center sites on DOE land."
We've reached out to the DOE for more detail about the RFI and will update this story if we hear back.
Getting going on nuclear
It is this – the ability to get deployments up and running in a much shorter timeframe – that lured nuclear startup Aalo Atomics to begin working with the DOE. Last year – well before the current RFI went out – Aalo received a tentative site allocation at the Idaho Lab to build a test reactor.
The company – which is slightly more than two years old – raised $6 million in its first year to hire its core technical team and $30 million in its second year to finish its prototype and move into a 40,000 square foot factory.
It is now on the cusp of closing a $100 million Series B funding round that will pay for a plant it is planning to build at the DOE’s Idaho National Lab site, CEO Matt Loszak revealed to Fierce.
Construction is set to begin within the next 12 months and the goal is to bring power generation online by 2027.
Like others in the space, Loszak said Aalo is looking to work with data center operators to power the wave of cloud and AI infrastructure that’s set to be deployed in the coming years. The ability to build its initial plant on DOE land could help facilitate that goal, he said.
“The fact that we can put a data center next to it, an experimental data center, to prove this out is huge because once something is proven like that, I think people will want to see it done many other places,” he explained.
Aalo is already preparing for this expected increase in demand. As it works to build its test facility in Idaho, Loszak said it will also be working to set up a larger factory space where it plans to produce 100 reactors per year.
Aalo’s nuclear tech specs
Aalo, of course, isn’t the only nuclear company eyeing big business from data centers with a small modular reactor (SMR) design. It’s up against the likes of NuScale, TerraPower, Westinghouse and Oklo, among others.
But Loszak argued what Aalo is doing is slightly different. It is looking to build entirely mass-produced nuclear plants capable of powering anything ranging from a data center to a city. The reactor modules housed in the plants are designed to be deployed in pods of five which are capable of delivering 50 megawatts (MW) of power.
That number, the CEO said, is key since data centers tend to be deployed in 50 MW chunks and the pod design means that even when some of the reactors need to be taken offline for service, there will still be power generation.
Aalo’s test site in Idaho will feature a single reactor, Loszak said. But the company expects its first commercial pod of five reactors will be deployed in the 2027-2028 timeframe and go live in 2029. According to the NRC spokesperson, Aalo has started engaging with the NRC on the approval process for commercial nuclear power plants based on the company’s design.
“Having that first commercial pod of five being installed before 2030 is our goal that we’re targeting aggressively,” he said. “In parallel, we’d be setting up this factory during those years in order to scale rapidly in 2030 and beyond.”
The company’s design, as well as its ambitious deployment timeline, is notable when contrasted with others working in this space.
NuScale’s design, for instance, features 77 MW reactor modules that can be deployed in pods of four, six or 12 for total power generation ranging from around 300 MW to nearly 1 GW per pod. NuScale (which was founded in 2007) applied for SMR design certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2018 and received it in 2022. However, it has yet to launch a commercial deployment of its technology.
The idea that Aalo (or heck, even the DOE) might be able to speed commercial nuclear deployments is a good thing considering Boston Consulting Group recently noted the U.S. and Europe have been much slower to expand nuclear power generation compared to China or the United Arab Emirates. That’s not great considering power is one of the key bottlenecks for data centers today.
Loszak said Aalo has had conversations with several of the major cloud hyperscalers. His sense is that such companies will begin nuclear deployments in places where there is less NIMBY-ism for nuclear and expand from there. Indeed, they already have.
You can read Fierce Network's coverage of initial nuclear announcements from hyperscalers here.
Update 4/28/2025 2 pm ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from the NRC and information about Aalo's engagement for commercial approval.