ONE Nuclear Energy said this week it has made substantive progress on Project Amberjack, a proposed small modular reactor campus in Louisiana designed to reach up to one gigawatt of advanced nuclear generation capacity. The West Palm Beach based developer said it has secured site control and completed initial nuclear siting and constraints analyses, along with supporting assessment memoranda and conceptual layouts for the facility.
Chief Development Officer Chris Hansmeyer said the project has moved beyond a conceptual stage. He described it as a controlled site backed by completed siting work with a defined path into engineering, community engagement and federal licensing. The company has not yet selected a reactor technology or finalized the plant configuration, decisions that depend on further engineering, environmental studies, transmission analysis and the federal licensing process.
The next phase of work includes land, geotechnical and environmental field studies, cooling water and logistics evaluations, transmission and interconnection analysis, and vendor neutral reactor technology screening. ONE Nuclear said it is also advancing stakeholder engagement with local and state officials.
ONE Nuclear is being acquired by Hennessy Capital Investment Corp VII in a transaction shareholders approved last month, forming a combined entity called ONE Nuclear Energy Inc. The merger is expected to raise up to $210 million in gross proceeds. The company has cited surging AI data center electricity demand, projected to triple by 2030, as the driver behind its combined natural gas and nuclear SMR development strategy across the Gulf Coast region.
Source: Rigzone - https://www.rigzone.com/news/one_nuclear_progressing_plans_for_1gw_louisiana_smr_project-09-sep-2026-184575-article/