NRC accepts Fermi America’s partial license application for review

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to review the first two parts of Fermi America’s combined license application.

The application contained sufficient design information for a license to construct four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the proposed site in Amarillo, Texas, according to NRC’s Monday press release.

NRC said it does not anticipate any safety concerns with parts 1 and 2 of the application. Reactors using the AP1000 standard design are already operating, according to NRC. 

The NRC’s so-called combined licenses allow both the construction and operation of a nuclear reactor. 

Fermi America, a private advanced nuclear company co-founded by former energy secretary and Texas Governor Rick Perry (R), submitted the first portion of its combined license application on June 17. The first portion provided general, financial and environmental information, NRC said.

The company submitted the second portion on Aug. 20, which provided non-site-specific technical chapters of the final safety analysis report including the AP1000 standard certified design and other additional information.

As Fermi America takes part in NRC’s pilot program for the environment review under the National Environmental Policy Act, the company plans to submit site-specific portions of the license application at a later date, according to NRC’s Sept. 5 acceptance letter.

The pilot program is to develop an applicant-prepared environmental impact statement (EIS) in an approach that the NRC said would help improve regulatory proficiency. According to the letter, Fermi America plans to submit its applicant-prepared draft EIS package by February 2026.

In a recent agreement between Fermi America and Westinghouse, the two companies agreed to collaborate to complete the application that Fermi America submitted earlier this year.

The application for the four AP1000s are a part of Fermi America’s ambitious plans to create a complex of data centers and would generate up to 11 gigawatts or 11,000 megawatts of natural gas, nuclear, solar and wind energy.