Startup proposes 456 small reactors and a data center campus on public land in Utah
Valar Atomics wants to build a nuclear-powered campus near Price, Utah, with first reactors running in 2028. Federal land managers are still checking whether the application is complete.
Valar Atomics, a reactor company founded in 2023, has proposed one of the largest nuclear-powered data center sites yet described. Its plan, called Project Beehive, would place 456 small reactors on more than 9,000 acres of federal land near Price, in Carbon County, Utah. Together they could supply more than 9 gigawatts of electricity.
The reactors would be high-temperature gas-cooled units of 25 megawatts each. Data Center Dynamics reports that Valar hopes to start construction by the end of this year, bring the first reactors online in 2028, and finish in 2032.
The company has run a small test reactor in Utah. It reached a first chain reaction in June, and in July Valar used it to power a single graphics chip. The Bureau of Land Management says it is reviewing the application for completeness and that the public will have a chance to comment.
Why it matters
This is the idea this site argues for in its purest form: power made on site by small reactors, built for the data center and not borrowed from the grid.
Reality check
It is a proposal. No small modular reactor is in commercial operation in the United States, the company's test reactor has powered a single chip, the land has not been approved, and the report gives no financing details. A 2028 start would be far faster than recent American reactor projects have managed.
Source Data Center Dynamics