“We already know how to do this safely and at scale, and we’re fortunate to have a solid base of investors and partners who share that vision.”

Gregory Forero
CEO
HGP Intelligent Energy
…on the Texas-based company’s proposal to repurpose retired U.S. Navy nuclear reactors to power land-based AI data centers, via Bloomberg News.

A pair of nuclear reactors that have propelled a U.S. Navy supercarrier around the world for half a century could end up powering artificial intelligence data centers in Tennessee if a proposal from HGP Intelligent Energy—led by Dallas CEO Gregory Forero—gets the green light.

Bloomberg News first reported the proposal in December.

HGP has asked the Department of Energy to transfer the USS Nimitz’s two Westinghouse A4W reactors—naval fission pressurized water systems—to Oak Ridge National Laboratory once the carrier is decommissioned, according to the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

The USS Nimitz, commissioned in May 1975, is the Navy’s oldest carrier. It returned to its homeport of Bremerton, Wash., in December after completing its final deployment. Oak Ridge, the birthplace of the Manhattan Project, remains a key federal hub for nuclear energy research.

The repurposing project would require up to $2.1 billion in private capital to build the necessary infrastructure, with costs running roughly $1 million to $4 million per megawatt, the publication reported last week. By comparison, a 2024 MIT study pegged the cost of building a new large reactor at $8 to $10 million per megawatt.

The company plans to apply for a loan guarantee from the Energy Department. HGP also filed a letter with the White House’s Genesis Mission Office, an initiative President Trump established in November via executive order to “‘leverage artificial intelligence’ on a scale and pace equal to the Manhattan Project,” Stars and Stripes wrote.

Tech publication SiliconANGLE noted that “the reactors, built by companies including Westinghouse Electric Co. and General Electric Co., are designed for long operational lifetimes and have a record of safe use within the U.S. Navy.”

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