NRC Selects Fermi America's Project Matador to Pilot Streamlined Environmental Review

The NRC is seeking public input on Fermi America's Project Matador, marking the first use of a new pilot program that modernizes how the agency conducts environmental reviews. The move hands the draft Environmental Impact Statement to the applicant itself, a departure from decades of standard regulatory practice that could reshape how the next generation of large reactors gets licensed.

The NRC announced its intent to prepare an EIS to evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with Fermi America's Combined License application for the proposed construction and operation of four AP1000 advanced passive pressurized-water reactors, designated as Project Matador Nuclear Units 1 through 4. The proposed reactors would be located at the Project Matador campus in Carson County, Texas, adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy's Pantex Plant.

As part of the COL application, Fermi America agreed to participate in an accelerated environmental review pilot program under NEPA, under which the applicant develops a draft EIS under NRC supervision. The legal foundation for that arrangement comes from recent amendments to NEPA: under 42 U.S.C. § 4336a(f), project sponsors may prepare environmental documents under the supervision of a lead agency, and the lead agency is required to independently evaluate the environmental document and assume responsibility for its content. Fermi America is the first private company to participate in this pilot.

The efficiency case for the new approach is significant. "By rethinking the traditional review process, the program is expected to reduce in-house NRC review time by approximately 50 percent and deliver resource savings of about 30 percent, all while maintaining compliance with environmental requirements," according to an NRC statement.

The COL application has been moving quickly through the acceptance process. Fermi America submitted the initial portion of its COL application for four AP1000 reactors on June 17, 2025. On August 20, 2025, Fermi America provided a second submittal of the COL application, which included non-site-specific technical chapters of the Final Safety Analysis Report. In an acceptance letter dated September 5, 2025, the NRC acknowledged Fermi America's commitment to participate in the pilot program for environmental review under NEPA. The NRC's acceptance of Fermi America's COL application is the first for a gigawatt-scale light water reactor since 2009.

According to documents from a presentation by Mesut Uzman at the NRC's Regulatory Information Conference, full nuclear construction is expected to start in 2027, with a target to deploy the first AP1000 in 2033. Uzman, who serves as chief nuclear construction officer of Fermi America, framed the project in expansive terms at the conference's "Critical Links: Strengthening the Nuclear Supply Chain for Tomorrow's Reactors" session on March 10. "We are answering the president's call to jumpstart America's nuclear renaissance," Uzman said. He continued: "The only site construction-ready today, we have secured the talent, the only active large nuclear power plant COL application in progress with the NRC, and the best global nuclear partners in Hyundai E&C and Doosan Enerbility, given their track record of building dozens of reactors successfully across the globe."

With the EIS scoping now open, the NRC has initiated a 30-day public scoping period to gather input on the scope of the EIS, inviting public comments to identify potential alternatives, environmental concerns, relevant information and analyses, and specific issues to be addressed in the EIS. The public may submit comments on the scope of the EIS by April 20, 2026, through regulations.gov using Docket ID NRC-2026-0100.