IEEFA: Fermi America's $41 Billion Nuclear Project Has No Cooling System Design

The Fermi America nuclear project, which plans to supply data centers in Texas, requires an unprecedented hybrid cooling system, according to a July 9 analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The system lacks a definitive design, estimated cost, and regulatory approval pathway.

Fermi America, a company founded in 2025 with no completed energy projects, is developing the Matador Project on a site of more than 2,000 hectares near Amarillo, Texas, above the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the most overexploited groundwater sources in the United States. The complex includes four Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors, as well as natural gas, solar, and battery generation, with a total capacity of up to 11 gigawatts electric (GWe). The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) accepted the project's combined construction and operating license (COL) application for review, as reported by Nuclear Engineering International.

IEEFA analyst Dennis Wamsted notes that the developer itself acknowledges in its NRC filings that the cooling system details have not yet been designed. The project, with a total estimated cost of $41 billion, envisions a hybrid cooling system that no large-scale reactor in the United States has ever used, as the entire U.S. nuclear fleet operates exclusively on water-based systems. Without a defined design, there is no firm schedule or cost estimate for this infrastructure, and NRC approval for an unprecedented system will be, according to IEEFA, a costly and lengthy process.

The IEEFA analysis warns that uncertainty about the cooling system adds risk for investors financing construction and for data center developers that need electricity supply on defined timelines and at defined costs. The NRC keeps the project's construction license review open, with no defined approval date, while the firm-generation market for data centers evaluates alternatives.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.