NRC Staff Recommend Licenses for Fermi’s Four Texas Reactors

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff preliminarily recommended licenses for Fermi America’s four Texas reactors, advancing its planned AI campus project, subject to a completed safety review unless safety issues require otherwise.

The draft environmental impact statement, released Oct. 9, recommends combined licenses for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors planned for Project Matador in Carson County. The public comment period runs through Nov. 23.

The four units would provide more than 4.4 gigawatts of nuclear generating capacity for the planned campus outside Amarillo. The NRC updated the AP1000 design certification on Oct. 14, with the change intended to reduce duplicate reviews for plants using the design.

Fermi prepared the draft environmental statement under an NRC pilot program that allows applicants to write reviews under agency supervision. The NRC is targeting a final environmental statement in December 2026 and expects the pilot to cut its in-house review time by about half. The separate safety review has no scheduled completion date.

Fermi withdrew the site-specific portion of its application and plans to resubmit it by Dec. 31. A mandatory hearing and a commission vote remain in the licensing process. The company is targeting 2032 for its first reactor to begin operating.