ARLINGTON, VA. — Two Department of Energy cleanup properties are expected to issue solicitations for artificial intelligence (AI)-related data centers soon, federal officials said here Wednesday.
The Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee could issue a request for proposals in early November for a potential data center, Rob Seifert, director of infrastructure disposition and regulatory policy for DOE, said during a panel discussion at the National Cleanup Workshop.
Likewise, the Paducah Site in Kentucky expects to issue a solicitation “this fall,” Seifert said at the annual DOE conference. The gathering is hosted by Energy Communities Alliance and Energy Facility Contractors Group.
The Paducah Site has up to 700 acres available while the Oak Ridge Site has more than 250 acres available, split between the DOE Office of Environmental Management, Office of Science and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Seifert said.
DOE is pushing to develop data centers, hopefully powered by small modular reactors or other advanced nuclear projects at its nuclear sites. Seifert and Neelesh Nerurkar, acting principal deputy director and director of infrastructure policy, discussed the DOE perspective during the panel.
DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory has already requested data center applications at its property and it has an industry day scheduled for Friday Sept. 26.
It is the “first of hopefully multiple solicitations,” Rian Bahran who serves as the deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactors said during a Thursday panel discussion.
Savannah River Site in South Carolina is also expected to move forward with a solicitation in the near term, the DOE officials said.
There are significant issues left to be resolved on development of small reactors on DOE nuclear properties, Seifert said. For example, it is not yet clear if DOE or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission might have final say on licensing a nuclear power reactor at DOE sites, he said. An executive order by President Donald Trump instructed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to work with DOE and other agencies on expediting permits, Seifert said.
It is also undetermined whether DOE will lease the land for nuclear reactors and data centers to developers or simply pursue a land transfer, Seifert said.
One participant in the panel discussion, Jennifer Chandler, a member of the Piketon, Ohio Village Council, stressed her preference would be for the land to be transferred from DOE into private hands. That way the former DOE property would become taxable, Chandler said. Piketon adjoins DOE’s Portsmouth Site.