A nuclear energy startup led by a founder who has publicly pledged to "make nuclear great again" is pursuing an ambitious plan to install hundreds of small reactors across federal land in Utah, according to internal documents reviewed by NPR. The initiative, dubbed "Project Beehive," represents one of the most expansive proposals yet to pair advanced nuclear technology with the surging electricity demands of artificial intelligence and cloud computing infrastructure.
Valar Atomics intends to develop the project on more than 9,000 acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management near Price, Utah. The site would host data centers alongside approximately 456 small nuclear reactors, a nuclear fuel production facility, and separate installations for nuclear waste storage, according to the company's proposal submitted to federal regulators.
The scale of the undertaking is striking when measured against Utah's existing energy profile. Collectively, the reactors would generate roughly 9.6 gigawatts of electrical power for the data centers, with additional thermal output designated for other industrial uses. For comparison, the entire state of Utah currently produces only about 4 gigawatts of electricity on average, though its peak capacity during summer months can approach 10 gigawatts.
The project's development schedule envisions non-nuclear construction breaking ground as early as the end of this year, with the first reactors expected to become operational sometime in 2028. That timeline would require navigating complex federal permitting processes, nuclear regulatory reviews, and environmental assessments—hurdles that have historically taken years or even decades for conventional nuclear facilities.
Beyond the federal acreage, Valar has also requested access to roughly 650 acres of state land as part of the same development, according to state records. The Salt Lake Tribune first reported on the company's use of state land last week, but the far larger proposed federal land component had not been previously disclosed in media accounts.
Local response has been sharply skeptical. Activists in the region are already contending with a wave of data center proposals across Utah, driven by the technology industry's escalating power needs. The addition of hundreds of nuclear reactors to that landscape has intensified concerns about land use, safety, water consumption, and the long-term storage of radioactive waste.
The proposal arrives amid a broader national conversation about how to power the artificial intelligence boom without overwhelming existing electric grids. Data center operators have increasingly turned to nuclear energy as a potential source of carbon-free, round-the-clock power, though most projects announced to date involve purchasing electricity from existing plants or small modular reactor designs still under development.
Valar's approach differs in its sheer density and scale. Placing more than 450 reactors on a single site would dwarf any current nuclear installation in the United States, where the largest plants typically house just a handful of reactors. The company has not yet detailed how it would manage the regulatory, safety, and security requirements associated with such a concentration of nuclear infrastructure.
The inclusion of on-site nuclear fuel production and waste storage facilities adds another layer of complexity. Nuclear fuel fabrication and waste management are both heavily regulated activities that typically occur at specialized facilities rather than integrated data center campuses. Federal regulators would need to evaluate whether such co-location is permissible under existing rules and whether new standards might be required.
Project Beehive's location near Price places it in a region with a history of energy extraction, including coal mining and conventional power generation. Supporters of nuclear development often point to such areas as logical sites for new energy infrastructure, citing existing transmission corridors, workforce expertise, and community familiarity with industrial operations. Critics counter that those same communities often bear disproportionate environmental burdens and have limited influence over large-scale projects sited on nearby federal lands.
The use of public lands for private energy development is itself a contentious issue. The Bureau of Land Management oversees millions of acres across the West, and proposals to repurpose those lands for industrial or energy purposes frequently generate legal challenges and political debate. Valar's project would require approvals from multiple federal agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses reactor designs and operations.
Timelines for nuclear projects have historically proven optimistic. Small modular reactors and microreactors, the categories into which Valar's units likely fall, remain largely unproven at commercial scale. Several prominent developers have encountered cost overruns and delays, and no small reactor design has yet received full certification for widespread deployment in the United States.
Should Project Beehive proceed, it could serve as a test case for whether advanced nuclear technology can be deployed rapidly enough to meet the power demands of the AI era. It could also test the willingness of federal and state authorities to approve unprecedented concentrations of nuclear infrastructure on public lands—and the willingness of local communities to accept them. For now, the project remains a proposal on paper, but its scale and ambition have already begun to reshape discussions about the future of energy in Utah and beyond.
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