Indiana startup promises reactors that recycle waste

While First American Nuclear Co. sells a future where reactors recycle their own toxic waste, the immediate plan to power data centers involves fossil fuels

Amid a desperate race for energy to feed the growing demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI), a startup based in Indiana, United States, presented an ambitious plan that borders on science fiction: building a nuclear plant capable of consuming the very “deadly waste” it produces.

The company, called First American Nuclear Co., promises an energy revolution. However, behind the talk of innovation, the immediate reality is more fossil than atomic.

The company’s plan is to start supplying electricity in 2028, but not with its miracle reactor. The initial phase of the operation will be powered by natural gas. Only in a second stage, scheduled for 2032, does the company hope to deploy its fast liquid metal reactor, as confirmed by executive director Mike Reinboth.

The real target of this effort is not the average residential consumer, but rather the colossal appetite of data centers. The explosion of AI has generated unprecedented demand for electricity, and nuclear power has increasingly been touted as the viable solution, despite the consensus that “the industry is unlikely to build new reactors in the coming years.”

First American is betting on its hybrid model: using natural gas, an energy source that contributes to the climate crisis, allows it to “start delivering electricity in the next few years” and, crucially, start making money while it awaits complex regulatory approvals for its nuclear technology.

Reinboth admitted that other companies are adopting similar strategies and confirmed that they are in active negotiations with potential data center customers. The demand is clear and urgent. “Data centers are driving energy demand,” he said.

A $4.2 billion bet on controversial technology

The company is currently evaluating several sites in Indiana for its project. The objective is to install six of these systems, at an estimated cost of US$4.2 billion. If realized, the complex would generate enough energy to power 1.5 million homes — or, more likely, a significant number of AI servers.

The pledge’s core technology is a 240-megawatt liquid metal reactor. This design uses lead-bismuth as the coolant. The company itself admits that it is the only one in the United States to develop this specific technology for commercial use, although it has a history of application in another context: “it has already been used on Russian submarines for years”.

First American’s big marketing promise is its reprocessing facility. The company claims that the system will be able to convert already used uranium (nuclear waste) back into new fuel.

According to the statement released on Tuesday, this ability to reuse irradiated fuel would eliminate the historic challenge of toxic waste generated by conventional reactors and, in addition, would make the plants “cheaper to operate”.

It’s a vision of a perfect nuclear cycle, where the problem becomes the solution. In the optimistic words of Bill Stokes, founder and president of the company: “Waste actually provides energy.”

It remains to be seen whether First American Nuclear Co. can overcome the immense regulatory and technical challenges of taming military submarine technology for civilian use, or whether Indiana’s immediate future will be just another natural gas plant, hastily built to satisfy Big Tech’s energy hunger.

With information from Bloomberg*