Is the Next Manhattan Project Coming to Richland?

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is considering Washington state for a possible location for one of a network of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers across the nation.

Richland, WA which is home to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is among 16 sites under consideration.  The Tri-Cities area is flush with the skilled workforce to build and staff power generation facilities for an AI data center.

DOE is requesting proposals for information about the projects and Richland could be a prime location for what has been called the next Manhattan Project by Chris Wright, Energy Secretary and fitting for Richland where work for the first atomic bomb was conducted.

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“We’re at a critical time again right now where another technology of simply immense import is hitting critical mass and is going to change our world in the next several years,” Wright said in February, while speaking about the importance of developing nuclear energy to  provide the power demands of AI.  “We’re at the start of Manhattan Project 2. It is critical, just like Manhattan Project 1, that the United States wins this race,” he said.

DOE is also interested in sites which would add either new nuclear or other energy generation alongside the data centers.

The Tri-City Herald reports Amazon and Energy Northwest are already working on a  small nuclear power facility and Grant PUD is exploring a project with modular nuclear reactors.