A Texas energy company is proposing to use nuclear reactors from decommissioned Navy vessels to power data centers. Repurposing the reactors will be prohibitively difficult, critics warn.
The critical power shortage for AI data centers has renewed interest in nuclear energy, years after it fell out of favor. There’s considerable activity among established players like Constellation Energy as well as startups like Oklo. And now a Texas power developer is pitching an unexpected source for nuclear power plants: retired naval vessels.
Bloomberg reported late last year that HGP Intelligent Energy LLC is proposing to repurpose nuclear reactors from Navy warships, starting with the soon-to-be-retired carrier USS Nimitz.
In its application to the Department of Energy, HGP proposes to redirect two retired reactors to a data center project proposed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The plan is projected to produce about 450-520 mW of steady power, which is enough to power roughly 360,000 homes. Or one data center. The reactors would come from the USS Nimitz, which is headed toward retirement and set to be replaced by a newer Gerald R Ford class carrier.
The Nimitz isn’t the only carrier headed to the boneyard; 10 Nimitz class carriers in total are due for retirement as they are replaced by Ford class carriers. Also, the aging Los Angeles class of nuclear submarines are being retired and replaced with Virginia class submarines, and those subs also have nuclear power plants, albeit not as powerful as the ones in the carriers.
Rewiring the reactors would cost about $1 million to $4 million per megawatt, a fraction of building new reactor, according to the proposal. The project is not a quick one; it requires 5 stages and is estimated to take a decade.
HGP’s plan includes a revenue share with the government, and the company would create a decommissioning fund, according to Bloomberg.
The alternative? After a lengthy decommissioning process, the reactors are shipped to a remote storage facility in Washington state together dust along with dozens of other retired nuclear reactors.
So the carrier itself isn’t going to be turned into a data center, but its power plants are being proposed for a data center on land. And even with the lengthening decommissioning process, that’s still faster than building a nuclear power plant from scratch.
Don’t hold your breath, says Kristen Vosmaer, managing director, JLL Work Dynamics Data Center team. The idea of converting USS Nimitz’s nuclear reactors to power AI data centers sounds compelling but faces insurmountable obstacles, he argues.
“Naval reactors use weapons-grade uranium that civilian entities cannot legally possess, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no pathway to license such facilities. Even setting aside the fuel issue, these military-designed systems would require complete reconstruction to meet civilian safety standards, eliminating any cost advantages over purpose-built nuclear plants,” Vosmaer said.
The maritime concept itself, however, does have some merit, said Vosmaer. “Ocean cooling can reduce energy consumption compared to land-based data centers, and floating platforms offer positioning flexibility that fixed facilities cannot match,” Vosmaer said.
Instead of pursuing nuclear, we are seeing floating natural gas turbine barges present a viable alternative. These proven systems operate within established regulatory frameworks and can deploy in 12-24 months rather than the unclear timeline around nuclear licensing.
“Natural gas barges combine reliable power generation with efficient seawater cooling, creating an energy solution that can scale incrementally and relocate as needed,” said Vosmaer.
