en.Wedoany.com Reported - The U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site will host a 1-gigawatt data center, initially powered by natural gas and transitioning to advanced nuclear energy. This public-private partnership is being advanced by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Amentum. The project aims to leverage federal land to reduce energy costs and support artificial intelligence infrastructure development, in line with executive orders signed by President Donald Trump, including "Accelerating Federal Permitting for Data Center Infrastructure," "Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies to Ensure National Security," and "Unleashing American Energy."
The Savannah River Site was one of 16 potential locations identified by the U.S. Department of Energy in April 2025 as having advantages for rapid data center construction. Among these, four sites—Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Reservation, Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and the Savannah River Site—were subsequently selected for further planning, inviting private sector partners to develop AI data centers and power generation projects. The NNSA issued separate solicitations for each site in September.
NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams stated that this proposed partnership represents an opportunity to strengthen U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, expand reliable power generation, and enhance national security. Through this proposed project, the NNSA and Amentum plan to rapidly build a data center with sufficient on-site power generation capacity, while improving the availability of electricity supplied to the grid and accelerating the development of AI and energy infrastructure. The NNSA noted that pairing new AI infrastructure with dedicated on-site power generation helps ensure the project's electricity needs are met without shifting costs to existing utility customers.
Amentum CEO John Heller pointed out that the growing interconnection between artificial intelligence, energy resilience, and national security creates new opportunities to enhance America's strategic advantage. The center will integrate engineering expertise, mission execution capabilities, and long-standing government partnerships. Digital infrastructure provider DC BLOX has been selected as the digital infrastructure partner for this development alliance. DC BLOX, together with Milliken & Company, Google, and Nucor, co-founded the Palmetto Nuclear Coalition to promote nuclear energy deployment in South Carolina, which was launched in July 2025.
The Savannah River Site was built in the 1950s to produce tritium and plutonium-239 for nuclear weapons, and once housed five nuclear reactors and two chemical separation facilities. From 1953 to 1988, the facility produced approximately 36 tons of plutonium. Today, this 310-square-mile (803-square-kilometer) Department of Energy complex is responsible for environmental management, nuclear waste treatment, and nuclear material disposition. The site also hosts the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, Savannah River National Laboratory, the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, the USDA Forest Service Savannah River, and several major contractors.
