A cryptocurrency mining facility in McCracken County could one day be powered by a small modular nuclear reactor under a new business partnership announced Wednesday between an energy tech company and a data center developer.
Riot Platforms owns a 60-megawatt Bitcoin mining center in McCracken County’s Industrial Park West just outside of Paducah’s city limits. It acquired the facility in 2024 when Riot bought Block Mining Inc., the original developers of the mining center. Riot officials said the center had the potential to expand to 110 megawatts.
On Wednesday, Riot announced a partnership with Terrestrial Energy Inc., a small modular nuclear power plant developer. Under the deal, the two will collaborate to pair Riot’s future data center projects with co-located advanced nuclear plants from Terrestrial Energy.
The partnering companies will consider project opportunities at multiple sites – including Riot’s sole existing Kentucky facility in Paducah. No timeline for when a potential nuclear reactor project would be announced or built has been publicly released.
“Our data centers require reliable and predictable energy at the scale demanded by today’s hyperscale customers,” Riot Platforms CEO Jason Les said in a release. “Partnering with Terrestrial Energy positions our facilities at the forefront of data center deployment, utilizing clean energy and benefitting both our customers and the communities we operate in.”
Terrestrial Energy specializes in integral molten salt reactor (IMSR) technology, using molten salt as both a coolant and fuel. The company’s design separates its non-nuclear energy conversion systems from regulated nuclear systems. Terrestrial Energy says this enables hybrid energy configurations that allow for the use of other fuel sources like natural gas to support the reactor to support customer needs and enhance system reliance.
“Riot has proven it can build and operate large-scale digital infrastructure, and our small and modular IMSR Plant is designed to deliver the reliable, low-cost power those operations need. Together, we see a clear path to deploying IMSR’s clean energy at scale for AI and [high-performance computing],” Terrestrial Energy CEO Simon Irish said in a release.
Earlier this year, Les signed two power purchase agreements with Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation for the utility to provide electric services to the Paducah cryptomining project through 2043.
Paducah has become a hotspot for nuclear investors in recent years. Two companies, General Matter and Global Laser Enrichment, have announced billion-dollar investments to build two new uranium enrichment facilities in McCracken County.
