Louisiana is in the running to host a major nuclear energy campus that federal officials say could draw up to $50 billion in investment, create nearly 25,000 jobs and supply power to drive the AI surge.
The US Dept. of Energy (DOE) this week named Louisiana among five potential host states for its Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, alongside Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed memorandums of understanding with each state to keep exploring proposed projects.
The push to power AI data centers with nuclear energy is gaining momentum nationwide. In Pennsylvania, Microsoft backed a deal to restart Three Mile Island, and venture capital dollars are pouring into startups innovating in the space, with ideas like small modular reactors and “micro-nuclear” plants.
The agency estimates a completed campus could generate as much as $10 billion in state and local tax revenue.
Now the US government is stepping in to juice the field.
Louisiana’s selection follows a coordinated state push into nuclear energy. In March, Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration launched Louisiana’s first Nuclear Strategic Framework. Its priorities include nuclear manufacturing and component production, expanded nuclear generation, uranium fuel conversion and fuel enrichment.
“Our state has a long and proud history of energy innovation, and we are ready to lead the next era of nuclear energy,” Landry said in the DOE announcement.
DOE first invited states to apply for the opportunity to pitch a project in January. Making the short list puts Louisiana in contention for an ambitious federal effort spanning nearly the entire nuclear fuel cycle. A campus could include uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication, used-fuel reprocessing, waste management, advanced reactors, power generation and manufacturing, per the DOE, which also envisions the possibility of co-located data centers.
Nuclear ambitions meet the data center boom
Louisiana is host to some of the country’s largest planned AI infrastructure projects.
Amazon and STACK Infrastructure are planning a $12 billion data center complex near Shreveport, while Hut 8 has proposed spending up to $10 billion on the first phase of its River Bend campus outside Baton Rouge.
Meta now expects to spend $50 billion on its Hyperion data center in Richland Parish, a project with 5 gigawatts of planned compute capacity. Entergy Louisiana is planning $3 billion in new natural gas plants to support it.
The state already has two operating nuclear power plants, both run by Entergy.
In April, Turner Industries announced plans for nuclear fabrication facilities in New Iberia and Port Allen. The project is expected to create 1,000 direct jobs, split evenly between the two sites, producing modules and nuclear-grade piping for advanced reactors.
LSU has also deepened its nuclear work. More than 150 government, industry and research leaders met on the Baton Rouge campus in May for the first DOE UPRISE workshop, focused on expanding the output of existing reactors and supporting new nuclear development. The university has research agreements with Idaho, Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
DOE reviewed 28 applications from 26 states before choosing the five initial contenders. The agency estimates a completed campus — which would go beyond power generation, into potentially enriching, processing, storing and ultimately disposing of nuclear materials — could generate as much as $10 billion in state and local tax revenue, in addition to the investment and job figures it promoted.
