Nuclear Startup Eyes 456 Reactors on Utah Public Land

A young startup wants to build one of the largest nuclear-powered computing campuses ever conceived — hundreds of small reactors, data centers, a nuclear fuel plant and waste storage — on more than 9,000 acres of federal land in Utah, according to documents reviewed exclusively by NPR.

Valar Atomics calls the proposal “Project Beehive.” Sited near Price, Utah, on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, it would include roughly 456 small modular reactors (SMRs), data centers, a facility to produce nuclear fuel, and others for storing nuclear waste. Together the reactors would generate about 9.6 gigawatts of electricity — more than double the average output of every power source in the state of Utah combined.

The proposal lands at the center of two converging debates: the surging energy demands of artificial intelligence, and how much public land should be devoted to private industry.

A Campus That Would Dwarf Its State

The scale is difficult to overstate. Utah currently produces about 4 gigawatts of electricity on average, with peak capacity reaching roughly 10 gigawatts in summer. Project Beehive’s proposed 9.6 gigawatts of electrical output — plus additional thermal heat for industrial uses — would exceed the state’s average generation twice over, according to project details.

Each of Valar’s 25-megawatt electric units could be installed one at a time, allowing the site to be built in phases. That modular approach is central to the company’s pitch: small reactors, mass-produced and stacked like batteries, could enter operation faster and cost less than the multi-billion-dollar conventional plants built in the past.

Valar has also sought roughly 650 acres of state land for the wider development, a portion first reported by The Salt Lake Tribune. The project’s timeline calls for non-nuclear construction to begin as soon as late 2026, with the first reactors online around 2028 and full completion potentially by 2032.

A Startup Moving Fast

Valar Atomics was founded in 2023 by CEO Isaiah Taylor, then 24. The company says it became the first startup in history to produce nuclear electricity in July, when its test reactor, Ward 250, powered a single Nvidia microchip at a press event. Ward 250 had achieved self-sustaining criticality in June at the San Rafael Energy Lab in neighboring Emery County.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Valar Atomics just became the first startup in history to make nuclear electricity right here,” Taylor told the crowd, according to the Deseret News.

The company has moved quickly with support from the Trump administration, which enacted a series of regulatory reforms over the past year and a half to ease the testing and building of SMRs. Taylor was present when President Trump signed nuclear-related executive orders in 2025, and Valar was accepted into the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program that August.

In July, Valar and Nvidia announced a collaboration to explore a roughly 30-megawatt, “nearly waterless” nuclear-powered AI data center in Emery County using the Ward 250 reactor and Nvidia’s water-efficient cooling technology. Project Beehive would be many times larger.

Small modular reactors, however, remain largely speculative. They have yet to be deployed for commercial use in the United States, and since 2000 the country has brought online just three new nuclear plants, totaling about 3.4 gigawatts.

Public Land, Public Alarm

The federal-land component drew immediate pushback from conservation and environmental groups.

“It’s concerning to see that the Trump administration, with the support of the state of Utah, is pushing this forward on significant acreage of public lands,” Neal Clark, wildlands director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told NPR.

Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, argued the implications reach far beyond the immediate region. “If we have facilities like this on public land for waste storage, for massive nuclear development, for data centers, that’s going to have tremendous implications for how public lands are used,” she said.

The BLM’s Utah office confirmed it had received Valar’s application. “We are currently reviewing the application for completeness,” it told NPR, adding that as the proposal moves through the National Environmental Policy Act process, “we will make sure the public has meaningful opportunities to provide input.” Valar did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Divided Coal Country

Local reaction reflects a community weighing economic revival against environmental and health fears. Carbon County’s coal industry has collapsed: its mines produced nearly 10 million tons of coal in 2006, but none has been mined since 2023, and the Carbon Power Plant shut down in 2015.

Carbon County Commissioner Larry Jensen told the Tribune the commissioners are “committed to allowing these things to move forward,” adding that “the silent majority are the ones that we really represent.” County officials say investment is needed to offset a property tax burden that has shifted to homeowners.

Many residents disagree. “People are up in arms,” said Cheryl Lupo, a county commission candidate. “Torches and pitchforks. Because they’re not being heard.” Lupo, who cited her mother’s and grandfather’s believed deaths from Nevada downwinder radiation, said she will “never, ever be a proponent of nuclear.”

Others worry about heat and water. “The heat island that the data centers produce, that concerns me,” lifelong resident Aspen Westenskow said. Utah State University physics professor Robert Davies noted that because nuclear plants are less efficient, they can produce even more waste heat than gas plants — and the Wellington area sits in a contained valley.

Valar says its reactors use closed-loop helium cooling, and the company asserts the facilities will make minimal water demands.

What to Watch

Two regulatory gates loom. The federal BLM review, including a full NEPA assessment with public comment, will determine whether the project advances on public land. Separately, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must license Valar’s reactors before any commercial power generation.

In September, the Utah Trust Lands Administration unanimously approved a 100-year lease of about one square mile of state land to Valar, a deal expected to generate roughly $35 million in lease revenue over 50 years for Utah schools. Board chair Mike Nelson acknowledged the unknowns: “We weren’t always sure what to ask about … and probably still aren’t sure of everything to ask about because this is a first, right?”

With regional data center proposals multiplying — including the 1,200-acre gas-powered “Jurassic Spark” project east of Wellington — Project Beehive has become a test case for whether the AI boom’s enormous power needs can be met with a new generation of nuclear technology on America’s public lands.

Whether that model proceeds will depend less on ambition than on regulators, engineers, and a rural Utah community that will live with the answer.