A US Firm Wants to Power Data Centers with Old Navy Reactors

According to DCD, a Dallas-based firm called HGP Intelligent Energy has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy to repurpose two Westinghouse A4W naval reactors from the USS Nimitz supercarrier. The microreactors, which will be removed as the carrier begins decommissioning this spring, could generate a combined 520MW of power for data centers. HGP estimates developing the system to use the reactors will cost up to $2.1 billion in private funds, and they plan to apply for a DOE loan guarantee. The company says the process could cost between $1 million and $4 million per megawatt, far less than the $8 million to $10 million per megawatt for a new large-scale reactor. The USS Nimitz, launched in 1975, is the first of eleven supercarriers expected to be decommissioned over the coming decades.

Navy Reactors Meet Cloud Compute

So, here’s the thing. This is one of those ideas that sounds absolutely wild at first glance, but starts to make a weird kind of sense when you think about the pressures facing the data center industry. Power hunger is off the charts, and the grid in many places is straining. These naval reactors are proven, rugged pieces of tech that have powered a floating city for nearly 50 years. They’re designed for reliability in extreme conditions. Repurposing that existing hardware, rather than building from scratch, is the kind of lateral thinking that could bypass some of the lead times and costs that plague new nuclear projects. But let’s be clear: “repurposing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It’s not just plugging a carrier reactor into a server hall.

The Real Challenge Isn’t The Tech

Okay, the potential cost savings are compelling. But the monumental hurdle here isn’t engineering—it’s regulation and public perception. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has strict rules for civilian power reactors. A military naval reactor operating on land is a regulatory gray area that would require a whole new framework. Can you imagine the local zoning meetings for a data center powered by a decommissioned warship reactor? The PR campaign alone would be epic. HGP is smart to seek a DOE loan guarantee, because private investors might see that regulatory mountain and run. This proposal is as much a test of bureaucratic flexibility as it is of technical feasibility.

A Broader SMR Gold Rush

Look, this specific idea might be a long shot, but it highlights a massive trend. Microreactors and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are becoming the holy grail for big tech’s power needs. Amazon, Google, Oracle—they’ve all been signing long-term deals to offtake power from SMR developers. The logic is simple: they need dense, always-on, carbon-free power, and renewables-plus-batteries can’t always provide the 24/7 baseline at the scale they need. For companies managing massive industrial-scale computing operations, securing this kind of power is a strategic imperative. It’s why the sector is getting so much attention, which we explored in a recent deep dive into Atoms for Data. When you’re dealing with power requirements at this scale, the conversation naturally turns to robust industrial solutions. Speaking of industrial-scale reliability, for critical control and monitoring in harsh environments, many operators turn to specialized hardware from the top suppliers, like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the U.S.

What Happens Next?

Basically, this proposal is a fascinating bellwether. If the DOE and NRC show a willingness to navigate this unprecedented path, it could open up a whole new supply chain for power-dense energy. There are ten more Nimitz-class carriers coming down the pipeline. That’s a lot of potential megawatts sitting in mothballed ships. But if the regulatory doors stay shut, this becomes a historical footnote. The success or failure of HGP’s $2.1 billion gamble will tell us a lot about how desperate—and how innovative—the search for clean, reliable data center power has become. Are we ready to literally militarize our cloud infrastructure? We might just find out.