The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), part of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), plans to build an artificial intelligence data center and dedicated on-site energy generation source at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
In April 2025, the DOE announced plans to use its land for colocation data centers and new energy infrastructure, identifying 16 potential sites for this purpose. Now the DOE has selected four sites, including the Savannah River Site, to move forward with those plans as part of public-private partnerships.
Amentum, an engineering and technology solutions provider, was selected this week to enter negotiations for a phased lease of the Savannah River Site.
“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 a press 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.”
The DOE cautions that selection for negotiations does not constitute a final lease award, and any agreement is subject to successful negotiations, applicable permitting requirements, safety and security evaluations, and other federal approvals.
The Savannah River Site will host a 1 GW data center powered by approximately 2 GW of on-site energy generation. Energy for the facility will initially come from natural gas with a view to utilizing nuclear energy in the future. The aim of the project is to increase the availability of power on the public grid rather than encumber it.
The location is notable as it was built in the 1950s to produce plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons. Production of plutonium for defense programs was halted in 1988 but the complex still extracts and recycles tritium for nuclear weapons. It is also the site of the only operating radiochemical separations facility in the United States. If the DOE intends to deliver nuclear energy generation, the Savannah River Site is primed for that purpose.
The DOE is yet to outline the cost of building out a data center and energy generation facility at the Savannah River Site. While the cost will likely be borne by developers, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said in April 2025 that the Trump administration would “unleash Federal resources to build out the data resources needed for an AI-powered future.”
According to Mordor Intelligence, the data center market in the US is expected to balloon from 57.08 GW of capacity in 2025 to 109.56 GW by 2030. In order to prevent data center costs from being shifted to households and businesses, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in March. The pledge is a promise to build, bring, or buy all of the energy needed for building and operating data centers and pay the full cost “no matter what”.