Amentum has been selected by the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to negotiate a lease for a data center at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the organizations said Monday.
NNSA picked Amentum to enter into “phased” lease negotiations for a data center and accompanying on-site generation, NNSA and Chantilly, Va-based Amentum said in a July 20 press release.
NNSA said it settled upon Amentum, a long-time DOE contractor, following what it calls a “competitive request for proposals.”
The 1,000-megawatt data center and roughly 2,000 megawatts of on-site energy generation will initially be powered by natural gas before transitioning to nuclear power, according to NNSA.
The news does not come out of nowhere. Since the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, the administration has been talking about using land at DOE nuclear sites for data centers to support artificial intelligence (AI).
Such a project has already been announced at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and rumors of the SRS data center were making the rounds last Wednesday at the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus event in Washington, D.C.
“This proposed partnership represents an opportunity to strengthen America’s leadership in artificial intelligence, expand reliable energy generation, and strengthen our national security,” NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said in the release. “By working with the private sector, we can move faster, apply innovative technologies, and make productive use of federal land while maintaining our commitment to mission delivery.”
“Artificial intelligence, energy resilience, and national security are becoming increasingly interconnected, creating new opportunities to strengthen America’s strategic advantage,” said Amentum CEO John Heller in his company’s press release. “Amentum is uniquely positioned at that intersection, combining deep engineering expertise, trusted mission execution, and decades of partnership with the U.S. government.”