Utah’s public land may host a nuclear-powered data center campus that could dwarf everything the state generates today | Daily Reports Online
- Project Beehive plans 456 reactors across more than 9,000 acres
- The proposed 9.6GW is 2.4 times what Utah generates on average today
- Power enough for 7 million homes will go to data centers instead
Valar Atomics has filed a proposal to place 456 nuclear reactors on over 9,000 acres of federal land around Price, Utah, supplying computing facilities with 9.6GW — a project called Project Beehive.
Each unit would generate 25MW, so the modular layout allows the company to build the site in stages as computing demand grows.
Valar also wants roughly 650 additional acres controlled by Utah, which would push the total footprint of the campus above 9,650 acres.
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Power output and design
Valar earlier considered a 10,200-acre parcel close to Green River, then dropped that location and filed the current request for land near Price.
The proposed 456 reactors would reportedly produce roughly 9.6GW, which is more than twice the 4GW that Utah generates on average today.
At a US household average of 900 to 1,000 kWh per month, 9.6GW running continuously would supply roughly 7 to 7.8 million homes.
According to the US Census Bureau estimates, Utah has about 1.3 million homes, so the campus could power Utah homes roughly 5.4 to 6x over, but none of this power is for homes.
However, the announced figures contain a discrepancy: 456 reactors at 25MW each give 11.4GW rather than 9.6GW, a difference of 1.8GW that the published figures leave unexplained.
Project Beehive is designed primarily for data centers given their immense power demands.
The company also expects the reactors to deliver industrial heat to manufacturing plants and similar operations, alongside the electricity consumed by the computing facilities.
Valar describes the campus as grid-independent, meaning it would generate its own electricity rather than draw from the power grid.
The reactor design relies on helium coolant, graphite and TRISO fuel, and Valar plans fuel manufacturing plus storage for nuclear waste on the same grounds.
Approvals, money and local pushback
Major work cannot begin until the BLM, an Interior Department bureau, finishes checking that the application is complete and conducts the review required under NEPA.
Under NEPA, the agency studies environmental effects and may invite public participation, which would give opponents and supporters a formal route to speak on the project.
The proposal plans for non-nuclear work to start in late 2026, reactor operations in 2028, and completion of the entire campus in 2032.
Groups in the area have raised concerns about the campus’s size and location, as well as proposed waste storage and industrial activity on public land.
Valar has raised $1 billion in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital and secured a further $200 million in credit.
That $1 billion backs Valar as a company and is not the cost of building Project Beehive, which Valar has not disclosed.
Given that approval on land allocation and ecological impact remains pending, there is no certainty that Project Beehive will follow its proposed timeline or that it will be built at all.
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