Project Matador AP1000 Units 1-4 by Fermi America: status and timeline

Project Matador AP1000 Units 1-4

Restart large-reactor building in the US and give a private AI campus decades of steady, carbon-free power without relying on the public grid.

ProtoStage 2 of 5

Draft NRC environmental review (Oct 2026) gives a preliminary yes; final due Dec 2026, safety review ongoing.

Updated Mar 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Safety evaluation and Commission licence decision

First part of combined licence application submitted17 Jun 2025Complete.
NRC accepts first two parts of the applicationSep 2025Complete.
Picked for NRC fast-track environmental review; scoping opensMar 2026Complete.
Draft environmental review; NRC staff preliminary yes9 Oct 2026Complete.
Safety evaluation and Commission licence decisionNowCurrent milestone.
Full nuclear construction startTarget 2027Not yet reached.

Most important updates

NRC puts Fermi's four-AP1000 plan into its fast-track environmental review pilotMar 2026

Upcoming

2027Full nuclear construction start (next)

Current obstacles

Paying for four large reactorsNo financing for the reactors has been announced, and building four gigawatt units will cost far more than the whole company has raised.
Licence still not grantedThe final environmental review, safety evaluation and Commission vote are all still ahead.

Physics limits

Big reactors take years of heavy constructionA gigawatt reactor needs a huge containment building, thick steel vessels and tens of thousands of welds that must all be inspected, so even good projects take about five years or more to build.
Most of the heat is thrown awayWater-cooled reactors run at about 300 C, so only about a third of the heat becomes electricity; the rest must be dumped through cooling water or towers.
Spent fuel stays hot for a long timeUsed fuel keeps giving off heat and radiation for decades, so it needs cooling and shielded storage on site; the US still has no permanent repository.

How it works

3 parts

Reactor

Pressurised water reactor

Uranium fission heats water kept under high pressure so it cannot boil; that heat makes steam in a separate loop to spin turbines.

Safety

Passive cooling

In an emergency, gravity-fed water tanks and natural air flow cool the reactor for days without pumps, power or operator action.

Licence

One combined licence

Because the AP1000 design is already certified, the NRC reviews mainly the site, issuing one licence to build and operate.

Spec sheet

Spec	Project Matador AP1000 Units 1-4
Reactors	4 x Westinghouse AP1000^R (reported)
Nuclear capacity	4.4 GW^R (reported)
Campus power target (all sources)	17 GW^R (reported)
Campus size	About 5,200 acres^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

1 update

Mar 2026

Major: NRC puts Fermi's four-AP1000 plan into its fast-track environmental review pilotPressRegulatory

About Fermi America

The team behind Project Matador AP1000 Units 1-4

Fermi America

Private grid for AI campuses, AP1000s

Fermi America is building Project Matador, a private power grid and AI data-centre campus near Amarillo, Texas, planned to grow to 17 GW from gas, nuclear, solar and batteries. Co-founded by former Texas governor Rick Perry, it listed in October 2025 (FRMI).

Its NRC licence application for four AP1000 reactors is the first for large US reactors accepted since 2009.
First binding tenant: TensorWave, 222 MW for 15 years, about $6.5B, from late 2027.
After the founder CEO's April 2026 exit, ex-TerraPower chief Lee McIntire took over in August 2026.

fermiamerica.com (opens fermiamerica.com)Company profile →

Headquarters: United States
Status: Public
Listed: FRMI (opens google.com)NASDAQ
Valuation: public
Raised: $431M1 round
Last round: Convertible notes · $431MJul 2026
Works in: EnergyFission
Coverage: 1 program · 5 updateslatest 11 Aug 2026checked 11 Oct
Customers: TensorWave (opens kltv.com)
Partners: Hyundai E&C (opens marketchameleon.com)Texas Tech University System (opens ans.org)
Suppliers: Westinghouse (opens world-nuclear-news.org)
People: Lee McIntire (opens newswire.com)CEOMarius Haas (opens ans.org)ChairmanRick Perry (opens en.wikipedia.org)Co-founder

Spec

Project Matador AP1000 Units 1-4

Reactors

4 x Westinghouse AP1000^R (reported)

Nuclear capacity

4.4 GW^R (reported)

Campus power target (all sources)

17 GW^R (reported)

Campus size

About 5,200 acres^R (reported)